


A Good Deed

by Ireallyshouldgotobed



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death, Drama, Gen, Medicine, Slow Romance, Warring States Period (Naruto), Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 80,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29533827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ireallyshouldgotobed/pseuds/Ireallyshouldgotobed
Summary: A member of a spy organization dies, only to find herself reincarnated in the Warring Clans Era. Now as a five years old, she has to start over as a member of the Uchiha clan. While her knowledge in medicine comes in handy, it’s certainly not enough to change her destiny, the clan’s and the whole world’s too.
Relationships: Senju Hashirama/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 37





	1. Prologue

The mission is the only thing that matters. That’s what “Two” has been taught her entire life. Under normal circumstances she would abide by that precept. But these were not normal circumstances. No, they were not. Taking one last puff of her cigar (yes, cigar because her last smoke was something to celebrate. She deserved to go out with a bang) she scanned her surroundings, making sure that everything was in place. The sounds of hurried footsteps were coming closer. They would be here any second now. She let out a snicker. They must be scared out of their minds if they threw infiltration precautions out of the window and were just rushing to stop her. 

Sure enough, the door was thrown with a bang and three people stepped in. “Command” came in, flunked by “Three” and surprisingly “Nine”. Wasn’t he supposed to be abroad? But then again this was an all hands on deck situation. “Command” took three steps in the room and came to an abrupt stop when she gave him a wide, slightly deranged, grin and waved the detonator at him. She could see in his wide eyes and defensive stance that he already knew none of them was going to make it out of there. After all he had trained her himself and knew what she was capable of.

Suddenly, he sighed and straitened his posture. Taking a pack of smokes and a lighter out of his pocket he stood there in silence, trying to light the cigarette despite his shaking fingers. “Three” and “Nine” were still a couple steps behind looking uncomfortable at the very least. “Command” started: “I see. You already planned everything didn’t you?”. “Two’s grin only got wider in response. He gave a light chuckle. “Indeed, you aren’t one of my best projects for nothing. This is why “Three” could never catch up to you. Always ten steps ahead of everyone.”

“Three” frowned at the light jab. “Command” never knew what to say and what to keep to himself. On any other day, “Two” would have taken the chance to mock her rival but not today. Despite her smile she was in no mood for light banter . “Command” continued:“I’m curious. Who turned you against us? And how? You were programmed from when you were three months old to give your unconditioned loyalty to us. How exactly can anyone undo that? Take it as a dying man’s request and answer my questions”

“Two” sneered at him. He still didn’t get it? Sighing loudly her sneer transformed into a serene smile. She looked at the neon light in the ceiling and said: “Nobody,” the expression on “three’s” face was priceless, a mixture of disappointment, disgust and incomprehension. “Command” kept his poker face while “Nine” ‘s eyes betrayed understanding. She had a feeling that this always laid back fellow knew already why she was working at taking down the Organization, once and for all. “nobody put me up to this. I’m doing it for myself. I came to the conclusion that our “ending justifies the means” philosophy is wrong albeit justifiable in some occasions. The Organisation is an abomination, created by greedy politicians and businessmen to exploit defenseless orphans. It has outlived its purpose . As such I chose to put an end to it.”

Her detached tone fooled nobody. “Nine” sighed, looking at her with a trace of sorrow: “He wouldn’t have wanted this. You know for a fact that he would stop you if he could come out of his grave to do so. We are a family. A family of murderous psychopaths sure, but nonetheless a family. Our existence is for the good of the nation. We work in the dark so that others can enjoy the light. That was his philosophy. Even if he adored you, he would never condone this. Stop before you regret it. “

“Command” was a bit surprised by the little speech if the slight quivering of his eyebrow was any indication. “Two” gave a dry laugh. See “Nine” was almost right on everything. Except for the part were his little speech would work on her. “So this is your MO. Emotional speeches. Your cover as an actor sure suits you well. I almost teared up”. “Nine” held her gaze with his hopeful look for three seconds before she was met with the dull expression and the soulless eyes of the coldhearted assassin she knew him to be. “It was worth a shot. I don’t feel like dying in this dump.” “Three” gave him a dejected “pathetic” while “Two” grinned and said: “Sorry, I would have given you each the death you wanted but I couldn’t take the risk of eliminating you all one by one. It has to be this way.” He shrugged and retreated to one of the stools in the make shift lab and silently sat on it. He knew there was no out for him against her. All of them knew. Even if they teamed up.

A screen in the back of the room lit up and a countdown of thirty seconds started. “Two” stared back at “Command” and said: “ All the others are here. Separated in the rooms of the facility. We’re all dying here. Numbers “Two” through “Twelve”. No one will be left to execute that wretched plan or any other mission for that matter. However, I will tell you what all this is about if you tell me one thing” . His left eyebrow shot up urging her to continue. “What was my name? The one my real parents gave me?”

The room fell in to silence as the countdown kept going. 15, 14, 13, 12. Command looked at the ground. He threw the butt of his cigarette to the ground and squashed it . “When the clock says one second left, we both say it at the same time.”

“Two” gave a harsh nod. Her heart was beating so loudly she could hear it. Not because of the fear of death. No, she has nothing to fear on that side. But the excitement was almost too much to bear. Finally the most secret of the secrets of her life was going to be revealed. She will know. Even if it was right before her death, at least she will know.

Four, three, two.

“My Brother”

“Izumi”

And then it all went very bright and fell as quickly into darkness.

Of course it would be quick. She made sure that she was standing on one of the bombs when it went off ,so that if there were ever any survivors (which was doubtful) she wouldn’t be a part of them. And also so that it would be fast. She did know a lot about death and she always preferred it to be swift. Her training as one of the top surgeons of the country must have given her a bit of humanity. What a shame, she thought. If “Command” knew about this bit of humanity he would have nipped it in the bud. Way before it escalated to her plotting the end of the Organization. Well, at least She was satisfied with this ending. “Izumi”, more commonly known as “Two”, 33 years old, surgeon by day sociopathic assassin by night, member of an elite group of agents trained since infancy to be killing machines at the orders of the governments, has done a good deed. The only one she ever did on her own free will. Destroying that lab, with the other members of the organization in it, was the right thing to do. She must have saved as many lives by this one deed as she took during her career of 21 years. That’s not bad at all for a life’s work. She can’t be sent to hell after being this good a person now can she. But then the thought of her in heaven made her laugh out loud, and that hurt like a son of a bitch.

Wait a second.

Laugh? Hurt? How was she even able to think? Dammit, this isn’t the eternal peace she was promised! Being left alone with her thoughts was anything but peaceful. She would know.

How the hell did she survive that explosion? It’s scientifically impossible. She might as well just lay there and wait for death. Help was at least 30 minutes away she knew that much, and her injuries should be serious enough to kill her before then.

But reality proved different. She was slowly coming to and nothing was going right. Sure she could feel the big gash in her head and the pool of blood it was making, but otherwise she was fine and she knew it. Second, there were no large chunks of cement on her which was confusing seeing as the last time she checked she was in an underground laboratory, and now she could feel the cool night breeze on her cheeks. How did she avoid the whole ceiling falling on her? 

Her hearing was also coming back slowly. First just an annoying whistle but then it cleared and more and more sounds started filtering in. And they weren’t making any sense. The only people who should be in the vicinity were highly trained assassins who could endure any kind of torture and never crack under any kind of pressure or pain. Yet around her, she could clearly hear the sounds of women crying and wailing. There were also kids. Lots of them by the sound of it. And boy were they crying loudly. Get a grip dammit! Nothing in this life is worth making such a fuss about. And last but not least, there was a lot of running. Someone was barking orders and the voices of men and boys were responding to them and then running off somewhere.

Suddenly there was a loud cry and not three seconds later the sounds of three thuds where heard right next to her, one on her left two on her right.

A slender, cold yet gentle finger started tracing the side of her face and a woman, the one on her left, sobbed:” Izumi! No! No! No! Not my baby! How could they!”

Baby? Who’s baby now? She had no time to think about that as her petite body was engulfed in a bear hug and the sounds of the woman’s sobbing only got louder. Ok what the hell is going on?

Mustering all the strength she could she pushed her eyelids open to take a look at her surroundings. And boy, were they hard to lift. From the angle her body was facing and her unclear vision, she started making out a few things. The woman’s face was not visible, but to her right were two boys. One looked eight and was clad in dark blue mantle with a fitted armor on it . He was fixing the ground next to him with a haunted gaze, fists clenched on his knees. The other was about five years of age and he wore a blue kimino with white pants. His fists were clenched on what looked like a knife with a spear headed end, and tears silently made their way down his cheeks, as he stared directly into her eyes. They were clearly brothers judging by their black eyes and spiky hair styles but the older one had sharper features while the younger one’s classic good looks were sure to cause mayhem in the future.

Suddenly the younger one was struck with the realization that they have been staring at each other for about a minute now, even if her eyelids were only open half-way and the woman’s bear hug was slowly but effectively cutting her airways . Panicking he clutched his brother’s sleeve and croaked: ”Ni-san, look! Look! She’s alive!”

The older boy’s head snapped to her and at the same time the woman, who also heard, gently pulled back to see for herself. Wide eyes scrutinized every inch of her face as she stared back dully. The woman was clearly a beauty and the mother of the two brats on the right. Luscious black hair that went to the middle of her back gently framed a classically beautiful face that the younger brat surely inherited from her. Tears kept coming from deep black eyes framed with impossibly long black eyelashes that contrasted with milky white skin.

“How is this possible? I was told that none of those who didn’t make it to the shelter in time was sparred.” And then her eyes sparkled with determination :“Who cares as long as she is safe! Madara, quickly go look for the healer, go!” The older boy who’s name “Two” knew now was Madara quickly snapped back to reality and the to his feet and run into an unknown location. The younger one crawled closer as his mother gently laid her on her back once again and took her hand. He gave her a big smile although she could clearly see the worry in his eyes. 

Madara came back quickly with an older woman, in her 50’s, also clad in a kimono (what’s up with the fashion in this place?) although she was covered with splashes of blood. The woman knelt to her side and started to give her a check up paying special attention to her head. 

“Two” kept to her policy of saying nothing and betraying none of her confusion with her face. When you don’t know what to do, doing nothing is best. Clearly, these people thought they knew her and were more than willing to help, and far be it from her to decline their good intentions, until she knew what fresh hell this was.

She gave herself credit for not snapping at the said “healer” because clearly the women didn’t know what she was doing. Even a first day intern wouldn’t make this many diagnostic mistakes in one go. Did they have some beef she wasn’t aware of? Was she trying to kill her? She kept her mouth shut thought and the woman sighed with relief:” Mikoto-sama, you need not worry so much. Izumi-sama’s injury is superficial. I will stop the bleeding and prescribe some tonics. It should enough for her to recuperate in a few days.”

Sama? Was she supposed to be someone important? And only superficial? How would you know, you old bat , you didn’t even check properly!! “Two” knew , from having experienced many injuries like this, that it was only superficial but that imposter of a healer couldn’t know that.  
She had no time to brood more as the “healer” proceeded to do some weird hand gestures and suddenly her hands started glowing green. What the hell? What’s happening? Why aren’t the other three shocked by this? The glowing, probably radioactive, hand started coming closer to her face and she tried to move away. She may have tried to kill herself a mere 30 minutes ago but she only dies on her own terms. Like hell she was going to die of a freak medical malpractice incident like this. But the mother-sons trio was quick to hold her down. The younger kid never let go of her hand, and the mother put a reassuring hand on her shoulder while Madara held her head in place gently. He even gave her a small smile and said: “ Don’t be scared Izumi. It’s all going to be over quickly. Just be brave, and nii-san will buy you dangos later, ok?” This remark brought a small smile on the faces of the other three as if they were in on a joke she wasn’t. Hey, even if she admits to having a sweet tooth like the “Izumi” they are clearly mistaking her for, this was no laughing matter. Just you wait until she stabs all of you with the dango’s stick. Until then she will try not to move if they think it’s safe for her not to. Clearly they only want to help.

The glowing hand came closer to her wound and stopped at around 1 cm . She could feel the warm glow close to her skin and it wasn’t exactly unpleasant. And then she started to feel herself heal. Like actually heal. The skin at the edge of the wound started to stretch ant meet its counterpart and no blood was oozing anymore. The headache wasn’t as sharp anymore and she somehow started to feel less shitty at a miraculous speed. Well isn’t this something. After about ten minutes of this spent in shocked silence on her part, while the other four people started showing various amounts of relief, her head was bandaged and she was told that she will only have a small scar. And ten types of infection, seeing that her wound was never cleaned before whatever sorcery was practiced on her.

The mother of the two boys helped her to a sitting position, while grinning wildly at her and the hold the two brothers had on her hands eased up a little. She took a look at her surroundings. She was in the middle of a dirt road between two rows of houses. The houses were made of wood and looked rather small and ancient. What was shocking however, was that the street had four other corpses in it lined in a row next to her. All had someone weeping next to them, no doubt relatives, and the whole thing was guarded by two tall men clad in mantel and armors similar to the Madara boy. Speaking of him, he was eyeing her from top to bottom worriedly. And she was worried too. Now that she was able to see parts of herself she came to a shocking realization. She had shrunk. Her body was akin to that of a 5 years old and a rather skinny one at that.  
The confusion was becoming too overwhelming ,even for her the legendary “Two” .And that’s why she crossed every training she has ever had and blurted the first thing that came to her mind:  
“Who the hell are you people?”


	2. This could work

“Two” stared at the ceiling. It was the morning of the third day since she woke up here and she was currently doing her hourly recap of everything she knew so far. And trying to come to terms with it.

First, she had died, that much she was sure of.

Second, her soul had found a way to tear through the fabric of space and time, jump into another world and lodged itself in the body of a five year old girl, who by all signs had just died from a blow to the head.

Third, her name now was Izumi. Uchiha Izumi. The daughter of Uchiha Tajima and Mikoto. The youngest sibling of Uchiha Madara, and twin sister of Uchiha Izuna.

The Uchiha household was shaken by her memory loss. That’s what the healer had diagnosed her with, and she was more than willing to go along with this narrative. She was ordered to stay in her bed to rest, and every now and then a member of the family would come to check on her, eyes filled with worry and sadness. All but the father, who had seemed relieved when he came home and found her alive that night, but had been insanely busy ever since. She came to understand that he was the leader of their community and that Madara was his heir. She heard him leave early in the mornings with his sons, and comeback very late at night. The brothers and mother were quiet busy too. But so far they all tried to keep her company as much as they could, and during those times they did their best to jog her memory. That’s how she learned a lot about her new life, especially from the chatty Izuna.

Izumi was the youngest and only daughter of what used to be six siblings. Past tense because three of them had died in an ongoing war. Or wars to be exact. Between groups of people that organized themselves in clans. She herself was a member of the Uchiha Clan. Their main enemies were the Senju. But they also fought other clans. Sometimes because said clans had alliances with the Senju, sometimes because their own allies fought those clans and sometimes for economical purposes. That’s how her four eldest siblings found themselves enlisted as child soldiers at age six, after a year or so of training. Madara, the eldest, had managed to survive for the past two years and, if Izuna’s admiring speeches and Mikoto’s proud air were any indication, was a very skilled soldier. The other three weren’t as lucky and had died one after the other at the hand of the Senju. This only fueled the hate the Uchiha family had for them even more.

Izuna, age five, had just officially started training. However, he claimed to be already skilled in taijutsu (which she imagined was some sort of empty-hand fighting style) and shuriken-jutsu (the art of throwing sharp-edged, star-shaped weapons at things). He was now focusing on ninjustsu and genjutsu. “Two” had no idea what that meant, although she suspected it involved the energy called chakra. Her new family had been horrified that she had “forgotten” even that, and utterly dismayed when they realized she had also “forgotten” her training. At least, this wasn’t a really misogynistic society. Even girls were expected to be skilled enough to be able to defend the compound when the men were out, or in the case of the really good ones, join the battlefield. Mikoto had promised to take her over the basics once more after she got better, and the two brothers said they would help her catch up to what she was already missing.

“Two” chose to keep to herself that she already knew Karate, Judo, Boxing and Krav Maga. She needed training to make her new body reach her earlier strength and flexibility, and it wasn’t wise to show skills that weren’t supposed to exist, unless she was forced to. And she kind of looked forward to learning the “Katas” they were talking about. Also, as far as aiming and throwing sharp objects went, she was confident she could teach these people a thing or two. After all, poisoned needles and knifes were one of her many areas of expertise.

The chakra thing was more interesting. In this world, aside from mitosis and producing stuff that keeps us alive, the cells of every organism produced an energy. After a simple intra-body process, that starts with meditation but gradually becomes subconscious, this energy is transformed into chakra that could be used in a variety of ways. That’s what the green light the hands of the healer emitted was. She was told that it had many other uses, especially in fighting, but Mikoto choose not tell her more at the moment to avoid overwhelming her. But she could already feel the chakra starting to run through her, as if her body still remembered what to do.

So far, that was all the useful information she got. The rest of it was gossip and information about different family relations and friends. It was kind of heartwarming when yesterday, Izuna came back from training with freshly cut flowers, some pastries and get-well soon wishes from their supposed play-mates. When she was a kid, the other members of the Organization never did this for each other. Injuries were common currency and their relationship was strictly business after all.

All except for him. “One”. Her brother.

“Two” shook her head to get that thought out. She didn’t need to go there. She can’t think about him. 

Mikoto opened the door of the room where she lay on her futon. She came to kneel beside her and gave a smile when she noticed the empty dishes next to her. She hadn’t left this room besides for going to the outhouse (yes outhouse, no toilets this time. Although there was a faucet in the kitchen, so thank god for small blessings.) and had her meals delivered to her. She shared this room with Izuna, while Madara had one all to himself; although she had a feeling the poor boy wouldn’t have minded going back to the earlier three kids per room set-up.

Mikoto, “Two” couldn’t bring herself to think about her as mom, started:” I see your appetite is back, I’m glad”. She only got a smile in response but continued:” Today we have to leave you alone, I can no longer postpone meeting with the widows of the attack to work out plans for their future, and your brothers have training in the morning and assessments in the afternoon so they won’t be able to comeback either. And then there is the assembly in the evening .Even Izuna is of age to attend now. How I wish you could have been there too”

“Two” sat up, curious now: “what assembly?”. Mikoto gave a dry smile:” Not the monthly one. It’s an exception we’re making to discuss how to deal with the betrayal of the Chinoki Clan. Your father wants everybody’s input. We cannot let this slide”. “Two” was a little confused:”Chinoki? I thought we were allies with them?” Mikoto’s smile only got drier:” That’s what we all thought. But, sweetie you will come to learn that in our world you can never know what the others are thinking. You can never let your guard down. Or you get stabbed in the back. Like the Chinoki tried to do to us. Thankfully we were ready and the casualties were minimal. The bulk of their forces was decimated by our clan and even their clan head perished. But some of them are still left. Their new leader swears up and down that the clan was dived, and that he was a part of the faction against betraying the Uchiha. He gave multiple apologies and some compensation. So we are assembling today to decide on a course of action that suits everybody. Especially that some of our members are married to women of the Chinoki.”

“Two”’s expression was pensive. It was a complicated matter indeed. But ultimately she had only been here for three days and didn’t have much information on the political climate of the continent, so she had no opinion. Mikoto’s smiled at her light frown and said:” As the daughter of the clan head and the sister of the next, it is your duty to learn more about how to deal with these situations. In the future your opinion will hold weight. I know you are a bit shy and not as assertive as your brothers. Maybe that’s because we are quite overprotective of our little girl. And that’s why I wanted you to be there tonight. But you are still recovering so there is no need to rush. Your father will understand, and so will the clan.”

“Two” gave her a smile and said some words of understanding. And then Mikoto left to her busy day. She was shy and not assertive? How amusing. She and the previous Izumi seem to have little in common. Even though she had been silent most of the time, it was to learn more before deciding on a course of action. She will have a good laugh when the family got to know her better, that’s for sure.

Truth be told, she wasn’t as sick as the family seemed to think. Actually she felt just fine and had energy to spare. The only thing that reminded her that she was injured was the tightly wrapped bandage on her forehead. So she decided it was time to explore her new home.

The front door opened to a large living room where you could find a wooden table, several cushions and two sets of shelves on opposed walls. One was filled to the brim with neatly stacked weapons. The other one however only had some dusty books in it and five or six scrolls. Clearly the family wasn’t big on reading. She wondered if the writing system here was the same as the one she knew. And if she was supposed to be literate. At the back of the room there was a door that led to the kitchen. Or what could be considered the ancestor of the kitchen. Wooden shelves and cupboards took up the wall right next to the door and the one next to it. The cupboards were about her height and their top served as worktops. The wall to her left had a faucet coming out of it, with a big wooden barrel underneath it, and what seemed to be a mud oven. And right next to the oven was a brazier with a small pot on top. Surely, it had her lunch in it. There was no fourth wall, just a large sliding screen door that led to a wooden porch overlooking a small garden. The porch went through the back of the house and could be accessed through three other sliding screen doors, each one leading to one of the rooms. The rooms all had a similar lay out. Tatami floors, one or two large dressers, two shelves, futons and a wooden hanger for the men’s armor. A wall marked the perimeter of the property and as mentioned before there was an outhouse at the end of the garden.

After the tour, “Two” came to a conclusion she was already dreading. These people had a very loose relationship with hygiene. Sure the bare minimum was done and it wasn’t exactly disgusting, but as the woman of the house Mikoto didn’t seem to be thriving. And the boys were no help either. The tatami floor had so many stains she stopped counting after ten. The table and the worktops were sticky. The wooden barrel still had last night’s dishes in it. There was a pile of dirty laundry in the corner of each room, and she had noticed that everybody’s clothes had holes in them, and when they were patched up it was done sloppily at best. And let’s not speak about the dust that had piled up in some spaces. Clearly the Uchiha household wasn’t running on gold, (which spook volumes of the clan’s situation, if this was the state of their leader’s house) but poverty was never an excuse to live like this. Especially when the only thing that was sparkling clean and organized in this house was that damn weapons shelf. She appreciated that they knew the importance of a well maintained weapon, but what a twisted sense of priority!

“Two” sighed loudly. She better get to work because even if it was only seven in the morning, with this small body and the available tool, getting this house back up to standard was going to take her the whole day. And she might as well contribute to the running of the house, since she’s a member of it now.

She decided to start with the laundry, so that it will have time to dry while she tackled everything else. Hopefully, she might have time later to mend the clothes properly. She emptied the wooden barrel, leaving the dishes for later, cleaned it and left it to fill with water as she looked for soap and gathered all the laundry. As expected, laundry took her all morning, as doing five people’s share of clothes, by hand was no easy task. By the time everything was hanged neatly, on the clotheslines outside in the garden, she was already exhausted. She made her way to the kitchen once more just in time to stop her reheating launch from burning.

Launch was blend. You might start thinking that “Two” is a snob, but she assures you she isn’t. She was just used to proper seasoning. Clearly this world didn’t lack spices as there was a small selection of them in the shelves, they just weren’t used right. Another thing she will have to rectify. “Two” was a good cook and she knew it. Cooking lessons were included in her training both for survival and as a tool during spying missions. “Twelve” had actually taken this art to such a high level that his official cover was that of the chef of a five star restaurant were the rich and influential had their habits. A goldmine for information gathering, as well as the perfect place to put a slow acting poison in someone’s food. Nothing hooked an unsuspecting businessman more than a well cooked meal. Well, one thing. But let’s not go there yet.

After a short pause, to eat and get her strength back, she started on the rest of the chores. The dishes were done fast, wiped and stored in their proper cupboards. The table and worktops were scrubbed clean and every speck of dust was chased out the house. She even let herself into the couple’s and Madara’s room and cleaned them from top to bottom. Privacy be damned. She wouldn’t let insects and small rodents start thinking that they are welcome back. She already had to chase one particularly self-important mouse out of the house. Hopefully there weren’t more where that came from. The floor was another deal. “Two” did her best with a harshly squeezed wet-towel, but she couldn’t win every battle. All in all, it was around six in the evening and the sun was setting down when she filled a vase, she had found gathering dust on the book shelf ,with water and put some freshly cut flowers from the garden in it. Depositing it on the table, she let herself slump forward utterly exhausted. This was unacceptable. She needed to work on her cardio ASAP. But she also was content. One step at a time, she might be able to start accepting this as her new home.

The family had that assembly in the evening, so “Two” guessed she was on her own for dinner. Shuffling to the kitchen, she decided to make herself something up to her standards tonight. After finding the ingredients for a nice dinner, she decided to make something for the others too. As a thank you for being nice and helpful. And if they already had dinner, they could always keep it for tomorrow’s bento.

“Two” was used to cooking for herself, and she already admitted to liking the activity. But for some reason she was happier doing it now than any other time. She came to a stop while frying some vegetables when she noticed that she was singing a pop song she knew. Why was she giddy? This was a mundane activity at best .One she had done countless times. Why was cooking for her family making her so happy? 

Wait.

Her family? When did she start confusing the Uchiha for her family? Did they grow on her? Sure, they were nice people, but she had met nice people before. She had even murdered nice people before.

Setting, the pan with the cooked vegetables aside, she crouched as a memory submerged her.

_The smiling face of “One” was looking back at her from across the table. But she knew that was his nervous smile. He was waiting for her reaction after dropping that bomb on her. She looked at him like he had grown two heads. And the she looked at the baby in his arms. And then at the woman next to him. And then back at him. After a while she croaked: “Yours? That thing is yours? Like in you having, hopefully consensual, sex with that woman, waiting nine months and then taking it out of her? That kind of yours?”_

_“One” chuckled and the woman hid her smile with her hand. He answered:”Yes, on all accounts. It was a surprise but we couldn’t be happier”_

_“Happy? You are happy? The feeling you might want to try is freaked out! Have you lost your mind? A baby? And with an outsider? If your biological clock was ticking, you could have told “Command” and he would have paired you with someone. Why the hell would you go and do this? Why? Why?”_

_“One” gave her an apologetic smile and said: ““Two” you are the only family I have and I never hid anything from you. You knew something like this was coming. I always said that I wanted a family, a normal one. I want someone to come to every night. I want people to share my meals with. And I want it to be on my terms, with people I like. Not just something “Command” ordered.”_

Share a meal with people he likes? Is this what she was trying to do?

She decided to put that thought to rest and went back to finishing her soup. When everything was done she set the table for five and just sat there lost in thought. She didn’t even notice the voices until they were at the door. Izuna’s excited voice filtered in, sometimes cut by his parents or Madara’s giggle or stern remark. The door was opened and she stared as the happy family made their way in and started taking off their sandals. The first to notice her was the father. His eyes only lingered for a while and then went to analyzing the clear differences in the room. Mikoto rushed to her side worriedly and said:” Izumi, Why did you get out of bed? You are supposed to rest” The rest of the family came in slowly. They clearly where noticing more of the changes than the mother. Izuna couldn’t hold it in long enough for her to answer and started firing question: “You cleaned? All on your own? And what’s that smell? You cooked? Since when do you cook?”

Mikoto’s eyes darted around wildly and she took a big whiff of the smell in the house. And then she went back to staring fixedly at her. Everybody’s questioning glances where directed towards her so she decided that it was time to start talking:” I woke up feeling fine today, so I decided to be useful. It’s nothing much, just some cleaning, laundry and cooking. I hope you are all hungry, dinner is still hot”

The four of them still fixed her for a while, and then Tajima gave a satisfied smile and said:”Good, I was starting to wonder how much time you were still going to spend in bed. It’s a pleasant surprise that for once you did something useful without being dragged into it. Maybe that blow to the head knocked some of that laziness and spoiled attitude out of you.” Gee, what a caring father he is, thought “Two”.

Madara and Izuna seemed to snap out of it too. They gave her teasing smirks and Madara said: “Well, I am expecting to get food poisoning tomorrow.” And Izuna followed: “I’m not even expecting to get through the night. And since when do you know how to cook? Aren’t you supposed to have lost all of your memories?”

Again all eyes were on her, but she just shrugged it off: “I don’t know, maybe I remember just bits and pieces. I guess I just knew what to do subconsciously. Let’s ask the healer later why. She might have some answers.”

Mikoto was still staring at her incredulously. Something seemed off with her, and for a while “Two” worried she might have done too much. But then she just gave her a smile and said: “Yes, let’s ask the healer later. Maybe your memories are slowly coming back and you remember assisting me in the kitchen”. Again with that weird look. “Two” felt like this was a test. Like the wrong answer might cast suspicion on her. But then again, who would believe that a thirty-three years old woman was trapped in the body of a five years old from another dimension. So she just went with the flow: “I guess that’s it”.

To her credit, Mikoto just smiled, gave her shoulder a light pat and followed the others into the rooms to get changed, while “Two” served the dishes. Now everybody was sitting at the table and looking incredulously at its content. “Two” thought that she definitely went overboard with showing off. But the others were hungry and so they wordlessly started filling their bowls.

Tajima was the first to take a bite and she watched as his eyes widened a bit and he said:”This is good. Even better that Mikoto’s I dare say”. See what she meant. The key to cooking is seasoning. That was all the others needed to dig in and, for a while, the brothers sang her praises while stuffing their mouths. Mikoto also ate a fake smile on her lips and gave some praises.

“Two” decided not to mind her. She was enjoying this. A family dinner that included her. She wasn’t going to let anything ruin it. So, she ate while listening to the others recounts of their day and what they had learnt from the assembly, while Tajima gravely gave pointers and insights. After dinner, she wordlessly did the dishes and didn’t forget to bring the now dry clothes into the house. The family was in the living room, where Madara and Izuna were polishing the weapons they would need for tomorrow’s training and Tajima read some scroll. She took the big pile of clothes next to Mikoto who had already prepared a sewing kit. The two of them silently folded the clothes while taking time to fix what needed to be fixed. After a while it became evident that “Two” was much better at the fixing part, so she took that task entirely. Not without another one of the weird looks Mikoto was giving her. She might have to ration the showing off of her knowledge, so as not to spook everyone, but she had decided that she wasn’t going to limit herself. She was going to use her knowledge if that made her life better, consequences be damned. And it starts now. It’s not like she was given a set of rules before being thrust into this.

The atmosphere in the room was warm and peaceful despite the silence. At around eleven, she was finished and, after giving everybody their respective pile and getting thanks for her hard work, she went to bed. That night, as she lay in the dark next to a softly snoring Izuna, she decided that this might actually work.


	3. Sharingan Awakened

Life was good.

It had been three weeks since the night “Two” first cooked for the Uchiha family, and she kind of fell into a blissful routine. Ever since the morning right after, she would wake up at dawn, wash herself and go help Mikoto in the kitchen. The boys would join them in the living room soon after for breakfast, and leave in a rush after, each to their occupation, but not without a bento made by herself. The family clearly enjoyed her cooking and she was more than happy to oblige. Then came the chores. She had insisted on daily maintenance, and after some resistance, Mikoto choose to behave like an adult and came to help her. “Two” had come to understand that aside from cooking and the occasional dish washing, most of the chores were done by a widow of the clan that came to help once a week. Mikoto, as the clan head’s wife, was really busy with the internal stifles of the clan, raising three kids and the training sessions she gave to the girls of the clan. But with “Two”‘s help things went much faster and, as the two of them chatted while working, they came to bond quite a bit.

The response to “Izumi”’s new personality had been different for everyone. Tajima didn’t seem to notice. He was not a really involved father, unless it had something to do with training his kids, and preferred to leave everything that concerned the run of the household to Mikoto. And he also seemed to favor the boys over her. It probably had something to do with the original’s personality, as “Two” came to understand she was quite introverted and had little to no interest in fighting. Madara was not as oblivious but didn’t seem to care. He was also somewhat of a mother hen. Mikoto told her that he blamed himself for their sibling’s deaths. As such he trained a lot to become stronger in order to protect the clan, Izuna and her. He also trained with his younger siblings at night in order to help them get stronger. He had seemed pleasantly surprised when she demonstrated an eagerness to learn more, something the previous Izumi lacked. “Two” enjoyed his loud personality and liked to tease him a little since he had one hell of a temper. Although his anger always vanished as fast as it came and he reverted to being the kind hearted kid he didn’t like admitting he was. The ones who seemed to notice the change more were Izuna and Mikoto. Her now twin brother seemed a little bit confused for the first few days and kept firing questions at her, and correcting her, whenever her behavior didn’t stick to what he expected. But he was only five even in an era were kids were a lot more mature that they should be, and she was able to distract him easily most of the time, so after a while he just dropped the subject and seemed to accept the new her. Sometimes, they would stay up at night, talking and laughing alone in their room, and they had developed a good relationship in the past few weeks. So far he was her favorite. The hardest to deal with was Mikoto. As the youngest and only daughter, Izumi had a really deep relationship with her mother. They were always together and Mikoto seemed to like spoiling and sheltering her ( probably causing her introverted personality). This, however clashed with “Two”’s extroverted and independent personality. She knew that Mikoto had guessed something was wrong with her daughter. Although she probably wouldn’t go as far as thinking about reincarnation. “Two” had checked and the belief in spirits and possession wasn’t a thing in this world. But nonetheless, she kept feeling Mikoto’s gaze sometimes on her, and catching some of her sad smiles and frowns. She didn’t exactly feel guilty, as this situation wasn’t exactly her choice, but she also felt bad for the mother. She had already lost three children, and the one she was the closest to was kind of gone, maybe forever. So she tried her best to be a good daughter and replace Uchiha Izumi. It wasn’t easy for her, because even if she already had experience in dealing with detached father figures (“Command”) and kind-of-sortta-siblings she wasn’t really related to (the other Numbers), motherly love was something new. She was trying to disengage for her former training as a killing machine, and to use this new chance at life to be a genuinely good person who did good deeds, but it was hard. And yet she was trying. 

Despite not having worked out the mother daughter angle yet, “Two” liked Mikoto as a person. She took her position seriously and worked really hard at trying to make everybody’s life easier. She was also a good mother who loved her kids a lot and proved it to them with her small intentions, like cooking their favorite dishes once a week, slipping them some money to buy candy on their way back from training, or just the simple encouragements she gave the boys when they came home depressed over not mastering a jutsu. She was also an outstanding kunoichi. That term designated the female counterpart of the shinobi, the proper term used to describe this world’s soldiers. Mikoto kept her promise, and started teaching her taijutsu every morning. The first sessions went smoothly as “Two” came to understand that the Uchiha’s fighting style was a mix of the ones she already knew. She started focusing more on building up her strength, speed and flexibility, and Mikoto started to leave her to practice alone on the garden’s porch after showing her a new sequence, while she received the seemingly endless stream of guests in the living room. At the beginning of last week, she started sparing with Mikoto, to assess her progress. She wasn’t ashamed of her performance, even if she only managed to lend two or three kicks most of the time , and Mikoto gave her plenty of praises. She also deemed it was time to add target practice to the mix, for one or two hours after lunch. “Two” was introduced to this world’s weapons of choice: kunai, shuriken and senbon. Getting used to the shape and weight was a challenge for the first two sessions, but she was getting there, and it had become clear that senbon where her specialty when she mastered how to use them after only one session. Even Tajima’s eyes glowed with approval when she gave the others her once a week demonstration of her progress. 

She trained alone for the time being, but she was due back in the clan’s makeshift school in a week, so Mikoto decided they will add ninjutsu training to the schedule so that she wouldn’t be too far behind the others. So she was particularly excited that morning. She was given a theory class about chakra, ninjutsu and genjutsu , and she couldn’t wait to try them out. Especially since Izuna claimed to have already mastered some of the clan’s techniques and that she kind of entered a friendly competion with him. She couldn’t wait to master it faster than he did just to rub it in his face. She also couldn’t believe that she was competing with a five years old, but then again she was supposed to be his twin. 

She had been practicing chakra production for the past week and could feel the energy coursing through her. Especially in her eyes. She had already noticed oddities with her vision, such as being able to see extremely tiny details or very far ahead, more than a human eye should, so she asked the family about it. After another round of grieving her lost memory, Tajima this time provided the explanation. Some clans in this world had genetic attributes called Kekkei Genkai. They were evolutions of parts of their bodies or of their chakra manipulation abilities that were specific to the clan and transmitted from generation to generation. They also were relatively rare, and offered advantages during a fight which made them both highly sought after and highly guarded. The Uchiha clan had one of the most effective ones. An evolution of the eyes called the Sharingan. When activated, the wielder had access to the ability to copy any jutsu, an eidetic memory as well as greatly enhanced vision that could distinguish even chakra. All the Uchiha had the potential to activate the Sharingan and thus had good eyesight since birth. When he showed her his, the mother and brothers had a good laugh as she brazenly stuck her face a few inches from his and scrutinized his red pupils and the three black coma-shaped patterns in them. None of the siblings had awakened theirs, but according to Mikoto it was a bit early. 

“Two” and Mikoto stood side by side on the porch facing the garden, and she watched with fascination as Mikoto did a series of hand signs (she had learned what each one meant) , inhaled a bit of air, announced:”Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu”, and proceeded to exhale a steady stream of fire that started taking the form of a large ball the further it went. Mikoto then turned to her smiling and said: “That was our clans signature jutsu. Every one of our shinobi is expected to master it before entering the battlefield for the first time. Now you give it a try”.

“Two” gulped. But she was never one to back down from a challenge, so she proceeded to gather some chakra into her mouth and do the hand signs. Keeping her hands in the form of the last hand sign, she exhaled heavily and a stream of fire came out of her lips. However it kept going in a straight line and never formed the big ball. She was a bit disappointed and she raised her head to look at Mikoto who was staring at her pensively. The older woman put her hands on her hips and said: “How strange. I never saw that happen.” Noticing “Two”’s slumped shoulders and sad expression she hurried to say: “It wasn’t exactly bad. Just different from what I’m used to. Usually, kids have problems with range and not shape. Their justsu can barely reach one meter in front of them for the first few weeks. But yours reached as far as mine, it just didn’t take shape. Or rather it didn’t take the right one. Did you notice that it was perfectly cylindrical all the way to its extremities?”. Two had noticed. In fact she was the one who kept mentally picturing a straight line so that she wouldn’t burn her face accidently. But she also wanted it to take the shape of a ball at the end and that didn’t happen. Where did she go wrong? She did the hand signs again and this time kept a mental image of every shape she wanted. The two women stared ahead as the fire took form and even “Two” could tell that his wasn’t supposed to happen. This time it looked like a fire stick with a large fire ball attached to it, but unlike Mikoto’s , her fire ball looked perfectly smooth with not a single flame out of place. Like if it had something defining its perimeter. She stopped after a while and looked at Mikoto who looked as confused as she was. Then she looked like she remembered something. She turned excitedly towards her and said:” Tell me something, when you executed the jutsu now, did you keep picturing these exact shapes in your mind?” “Two” gave a small nod waiting for a tip on how to rectify her mistake. But it never came. Instead Mikoto said:” I understand now. This is unexpected but a good thing. Great even. You did not fail, you just used your chakra differently than how most Uchiha do. Most of us keep mental pictures of our jutsus in our heads when we learn how to use them, but they always come out a bit different in reality. Chakra doesn’t usually take precise shapes and is a bit wild. That’s why my fireball looked like it did. However, the smooth surface of yours means that you have a near perfect control over your chakra. It’s rare in our clan, but not unheard of. I believe that one of our healers had this ability too. We will have to ask about this. Maybe you could become a healer too. We are in dire need of them…” 

Mikoto’s rambling came to a stop when “Two” fell to her knees, beads of sweat running down her face. She came to help the little girl up and took her inside while saying:” But you don’t seem to have large chakra reserves. Usually a beginner can do three fire balls in a row and still have some chakra left. You are out after only two.” They sat at the dining table and Mikoto gave her a cup of water which she gulped in one go. The mother gave her a mocking smile and said:” If Izuna came to know about this he will never let you live it down. He’s already up to five fireballs after less than a month of practice.” . “Two” stuck out her tongue wich earned her a chuckle, but then asked seriously:” What were you saying about me becoming a healer?”. That had perked up her interest because she was starting to think about her future options. She liked training, but she had little interest in a career as a shinobi. She didn’t see why she should involve herself in a conflict that had nothing to do with her. As a woman she had the option of becoming a housewife later. She liked the idea, because playing house with the Uchiha family had opened her eyes to a new world she used to force herself not to see. She could also become a seamstress, or run a shop. And know becoming a healer seemed like an option too. She liked her work in her last life as a surgeon and didn’t mind putting her knowledge to use again. 

Mikoto became serious too:” You already know that we only have three healers of our own and two midwives. But, for a community this big, it doesn’t cut it and we always have to rely on outside help when the shinobi comeback from battle. I wish we had more healers like the bastards of the Senju clan do. It will save many live. But we don’t have the knowledge and our chakra nature doesn’t sit well with medical ninjutsu. So there aren’t many willing to become healers in our clan.” She gave a big sigh. “Two” was even more intrigued:” And you think that because I seem to have good chakra control, I can become a healer?” Mikoto answered: “It seems to be one of the factors to look for. A few years back we only had one healer left and no volunteers. So your father forced all the shinobi to take a test designed by the old Anko and only two had a good enough control over their chakra to be selected as apprentices. If you want we can swing by Anko’s infirmary this afternoon and ask her.” 

“Two” thought about it for a little while and then nodded. Every day when she went to the market with Mikoto, visited friends and relatives, or simply played in the street with the brothers and their little friends; she was met with warm smiles and everybody’s concern. As the clan’s head daughter, she knew that some of it was hypocrisy, but she also knew that the people of the clan cared greatly about each other. And she was starting to feel like a member of their community. So if she could be useful in a way or another she would try.

The conversation drifted to their afternoon schedule. After target practice, they would go to visit some of the clan’s widows and recovering soldiers to make sure they didn’t lack anything. They also had to swing by the market to buy some of the stuff they had run out of. Also Mikoto had put some money aside as she wanted to make a new yukata for her daughter. She had a few but they were quite old and some of them were used during practice and had become unpresentable. So they also had an appointment with one of the seamstresses of the clan. And let’s not forget about the visit to old Anko. 

When they set out that afternoon the sun was still high in the sky, although the days were starting to get shorter as autumn settled in. It will probably be dark before they came back home, but they weren’t in a rush. Today’s family dinner was canceled because the new leader of the Chinoki clan had brought a delegation with him to visit the Uchiha, along with the agreed upon compensation. The Uchiha had settled on asking for quite a bit of money and supplies in exchange for keeping the alliance. It sure would put the Chinoki in a difficult financial situation, but this was a punishment. And the Uchiha needed as much money as they could get. “Two” had spent some time analyzing the clan and had come to a few realizations. The clan wasn’t exactly poor, but they had problems. She was not skilled in politics or economics, and leadership was always a concept that evaded her, but with her previous life experience she could see that the Uchiha suffered greatly from mismanagement. The Uchiha clan was a warrior clan in its essence. As such, their lives revolved around fighting and the business of war. Boys grew up to be shinobi and girls grew up to be kunoichi or to birth more shinobi. And they were great at what they did. Missions kept coming in and they were in high demand. She also learned that the fight between Senju and Uchiha, besides being based on ideology and revenge, was in its core a fight to determine once and for all which was the strongest clan, since they both had long since surpassed every other clan of the Land of Fire. But all of this led to a great lack of diversity in the clan’s economy. Every penny they could spare was spent on weaponry and on the shinobi’s training, which left the investment in other areas lacking. Poor health care and complete reliance on others for the production of necessities like food, clothing material and medical salves were some of the things they suffered from. And to make matters worse, the Uchiha seemed to disdain members of the clan who weren’t full time shinobi, and so there weren’t enough people willing to do the support work that could alleviate the financial burden of the clan. Hence the need for healers. Even the Uchiha’s most lucrative source of income after the missions, blacksmithing , was lacking workers. “Two” wondered how they survived when missions became scarce, like she expected them to be during winter. All in all, the Chinoki’s money couldn’t be more welcome. At least Tajima had decided to leave them some face, and host a small dinner for them at one of the clan’s restaurants that evening. He also dragged his heir and spare with him to teach them how to deal with such delegations. Secretly, “Two” hoped they wouldn’t learn much from such a poor politician.

They first made their home visits and checked on everyone they had to. There wasn’t much to say or do as everything had already been fixed during the last weeks and people were settling into their new realities nicely. But it still took them a large chunk of the afternoon and the sun was already setting when they made their way to old Anko’s. 

Old Anko was the healer who had helped her on her first night here. And she wasn’t exactly old, just a widow in her late forty’s ,with no children. The name stuck mainly because, as the clan’s most senior medical practitioner, she was granted a seat at the elders council . It was a sign of respect really. Her infirmary was close to the compounds main doors, so as to facilitate access when the wounded were carried in after a skirmish. It was empty however when the mother daughter pair came in, and the middle aged woman was stocking some pots on the shelves behind a counter at the back of the spacious room. Ah, yes, the infirmary also doubled in as a pharmacy. The only one in the compound.

Mikoto and Anko exchanged greetings and after knowing the matter of their visit and getting a complete recount of this morning’s happenings, Anko’s eyes were glowing. She led them to sit in front of a table facing the big window of the room and disappeared in the backroom for a while. As she stared at from the window, “Two” noticed a group of ten or so shinobi running towards the door and out of the compound. They must have been rushing on a mission. Not five minutes later, another group did the same. She paid them no mind as heavily armed shinobi running around were a norm here. Anko came back with two fish that looked like they were just taken out of the water and put them on the table. Both had a gash on their surface and as she settled in she started explaining:” This is the test to see if you can become a healer. It’s quite simple really. You have to coat your palm with a thin layer of chakra that is not really concentrated so that it appears green instead of the usual blue. Your goal is to infuse enough energy into the cells of the organism so as to stimulate their reproduction without destroying them. These fish just died, so the cells can still reproduce for a while. However not many master this exercise because it requires a perfect control over chakra both in shape and consistency. “

“Two” listened with fascination. So that’s how it worked. She watched enraptured as Anko demonstrated on her fish and then it was her turn to try. It was clumsy at best. She kept trying to do the same as Anko, but it took her thirty minutes and a few burned pieces of fish to somehow make the gash look like it was closed, nothing like what the healer did in less than three minutes. Anko, however, was over the moon. She told her that, for a beginner, she did just fine, and that even she required a lot of training to be able to achieve such results.

It was clear now that “Two” had the ability to become a healer if she wanted to. And so after discussing the details with a proud Mikoto, it was decided that “Two” will not attend the same training as the brothers but become Anko’s apprentice. She was still expected to attend at least two training sessions per week, so as to hone her skills as a ninja, but Anko didn’t mind as she was desperate to get new students to help in the infirmary. “Two” stared at the window as the two older women kept discussing the problems of the clan, and Mikoto kept promising that she would ask Tajima for more funding for the already stretched thin clinic. “Two” had a feeling that her status as the clan head’s daughter played a huge part in her new teacher’s enthusiasm. But she didn’t mind. After having met Anko on two other occasions other than then and their first meeting, she dismissed her earlier skepticism of the woman and understood that she was doing her best with the little she had. She also noticed another group of men, this time more than fifteen, rushing out of the compound. This was strange. She knew that a lot of the shinobi were out on missions, and with so many large groups leaving, it was like the compound was emptying out. Why was Tajima doing this? Especially when the night was setting, it was unwise to leave the compound under guarded. But maybe they were needed elsewhere. The next few weeks were the last time the Senju and them had to sneak in a couple of skirmishes before the cold set in and they had to stop the fighting

The three women left the infirmary together, as Anko was also heading towards the seamstress, to get some new bandages she had ordered. The streets were oddly empty even if it was starting to get late, with only the occasional woman or child coming into view. Some shops didn’t close until a few hours and even then there should have been a patrol in view. As they arrived in front of the shop, “Two” noticed Hikaku, her first cousin, one year younger than Madara, running towards the compounds door fully equipped. She stopped him, now greatly intrigued by what was happening:” Hikaku ni-san, wait up! Where are you all heading? Are we under attack?”

Mikoto and Anko stopped too, curious and worried. Hikaku, efficient as always, gave them a summary of what was happening:” An hour ago, Senju Butsuma, his sons and some of their top shinobi were spotted south of the compound. Tajima-sama left the dinner and took Madara-ni, Izuna as well as some of our men to face them. But reinforcements keep coming, and so we have to send in more men. My squad’s leader ordered us to join too. I have to rush to the front door. They are waiting for me.”

Mikoto gasped:” Izuna too? He has only been training for less than a month! He’s not ready!”. “Two” however had other concerns. Blame her for being heartless later, but right now something else was on her mind:” Wait, are all the squad leaders giving orders to rush into the battle ? Who’s staying at the compound to protect it? Aren’t the men not on missions supposed to patrol? What if this was a diversion to attack the compound and you were all rushing in?” . “Two” knew that she was going to the worst case scenario but the Uchiha didn’t exactly have a concrete plan in case the compound was attacked. Women and children were supposed to run to the nearest shelter, but that was it. Her reasoning seemed to be giving a slap to the three others. Mikoto frowned a bit uneasy, but was quick to take action: “Hikaku-kun, go repeat what Izumi said to your squad leader .And have him try to reorganize our defense. Go and call back some men from the front if needed. We will take care of the rest.” The boy gave a nod and ran to the meeting point. They all watched him until he disappeared and waited for Mikoto to come with a plan. Suddenly she decided:” Anko-san, Izumi, the three of us will go house to house and tell the children and women to go to the safe house as fast as we can. That’s all we can do for right know.” Before the two could nod, three shadows landed next to them and Mikoto quickly shielded her behind her , her posture defensive. She fixed the man in the middle, middle-aged , black hair, a scar on his right cheek still bloody, and said:”Homura-sama, you scared us. I wasn’t expecting to see you now. I will have to ask to go back to your inn, as we are going through something right now.” So this was Chinoki Homura, the new leader of the Chinoki, who had come in peace. “Two” knew the delegation was composed of six men. But only three were here. Where were the others? Her gut told her she didn’t want to know. The leader made no move to retreat and stayed silent, but the man to his right was more cooperative:” The wife and the daughter, we got lucky. Homura-sama, if we deliver them both to the Senju, they will be convinced of our worth and accept us as worthy allies, don’t you think?” The leader was clearly assessing their small group. They were at a clear disadvantage. Not as armed and not as armored as their enemies. But the three females were all clutching the kunai hidden in the sleeve of their kimonos. It was one of the Uchiha habits she was now thankful to have adopted. And the Chinoki leader was still tense facing Mikoto. He finally said:” Do not underestimate them. Unlike us the Uchiha train all their women. Even the child. And Mikoto-sama is especially dangerous. She is not Tajima’s wife and Madara, that small demon’s mother for nothing. I have seen her in battle and I never wanted to be on the side opposing her and her evil eyes.”

“Two” peered at the woman shielding her. She knew Mikoto was an outstanding kunoichi, but she had no idea she was so fearsome. Her Sharingan was activated, eyes now blood red and her smile was nothing like the warm one she always had. This one was feral and it twisted more when she said:” I’m honored you remember a retired shinobi like me. And if you knew what’s good for, you would get the hell out of my sight. And run far away from here.” The three men were now on their guard weapons out, and so were the women. To her right Anko had also activated her Sharingan, although hers had only two coma patterns. Mikoto looked at her from the corner of her eyes and said:” Izumi stand back. You can do nothing against them at your level. Stay vigilant and defend yourself if anyone can get past Anko and I. Otherwise don’t do anything.” “Two” was displeased at being unable to help, but she agreed with Mikoto’s assessment of the situation and so said:” Understood. Don’t worry about me. I will not hinder you.”. As soon as she finished talking, the fight started. Two against three was hardly fair, but the woman seemed to hold their ground. Sounds of weapons clashing filled the air. And at some point jutsus were done. The Chinoki seemed to be great at Doton, and “Two” would have been amazed if they weren’t the enemy. At one point, the talkative Chinoki was caught in one of Mikoto’s katon’s and fell to the ground screaming as the flames ate at him. He died in a matter of seconds, but the smell of burnt flesh filled the air for longer and made her want to puke. Anko was struggling a bit, clearly fighting wasn’t her strong suit and her opponent wasn’t one to be messed with. She tried to do some jutsus , but he was faster and suddenly went underground. Anko and “Two” kept their eyes on the ground waiting for him to pop back up , and Mikoto was clearly distracted in her fight against the Chinoki leader.

It all happened faster than “Two” could see or comprehend. A hand surged from the ground and grabbed her ankles and tried to pull her in too. She was fully prepared for the eventuality of the man coming after her, and used the kunai in her hand to stab through his hand and expertly pin it to the ground after freeing herself. But Mikoto clearly didn’t trust she would be able to defend herself , and idiotically kicked her opponent sending him a couple of steps back, turned her back to him and rushed towards her to help her. She executed a fire technique and directed it to the ground exactly were the man was still stuck, no doubts cooking him to the bone. But as she finished a small sword pierced through her chest right were the heart was making her cough a bit of blood. Anko was a couple of steps two late, as she severed the carotid of the Chinoki leader who had the sword in hand. The two bodies slumped forward as “Two” could only watch with wide unblinking eye, while Anko screamed in the background. She was frozen in place until she saw Mikoto raise her head with difficulty looking towards her while trying to say something. Her feet finally worked and she rushed to Mikoto, just as Anko did the same. Mikoto was repeating over and over:” There’s more..of..them in..here. Go and …hide …until the…others..come..back. “Two” robotically gave a nod and started to frantically try and get Mikoto out from underneath the heavy bastard. Anko, was less flustered and ,understanding what the little girl was trying to do, helped her, while saying” Let’s go into the seamstresses shop ok? I can examine her there.” Again all “Two” could do was nod. They dragged the body through the street and into the shop as carefully as they could. 

The shop was dimly lit by an oil lamp but nobody seemed there. They set Mikoto on the ground and after pulling the sword out, Anko proceeded to try and heal it with medical chakra. “Two” watched impotently from the back, hoping against hope that it worked. But she was one of the top surgeons of her country in the last life, and her mind was already telling her what her heart couldn’t accept. That it was useless. The place and the angle of the wound where indicators that it was mortal. Her heart must already be in pieces that can’t be stitched back together by now. It was the kind of expert blow she used to deal when she was an assassin. She knew there was no going back. Mikoto knew it too and so she struggled to say:”There’s ..no..need. I know it’s over.” Anko seemed unwilling to accept it ,but her bloody hands dropped to her sides after a while and she turned her head to hide her tears. “Two” finally seemed to snap out if it and she lunged forward grabbing Mikoto’s hand as hard as she could, face bathed in tears. “Why? Just why? You were doing just fine and I told you I wasn’t going to hinder you. Why would you turn your back on your opponent? That’s like the number one no-no in a fight. Even rookies don’t make that mistake.” .Mikoto looked at her with a sad smile and croaked:” I’m a mother. What mother wouldn’t rush to protect her child? Even if I know that you’re not my Izumi, you smile just like her. I couldn’t let another of my children die. I couldn’t.” “Two”’s hands shook and slightly let go of Mikoto’s , expression slightly flabbergasted . But Mikoto seemed to gather the last of her forces and use it to hold on tightly to her, eyes looking at her with determination :” It’s ok, who over you might be. I knew since the beginning. I spoiled my Izumi so much that she never stepped a foot in the kitchen because she hated it. Even if the said forgotten memories were back, how could she remember something she never knew. But it’s ok. It doesn’t matter. I like to think that she left you here, so that I wouldn’t be sad. And now I would like to ask a favor out of you. Please, promise me you will take care of my kids. Promise me that they will have someone when I’m gone. Tajima isn’t a bad father but he will not take care of them like I would want him to. Please promise me you will care for my boys.” “Two”’s mind wasn’t working properly right now. Too many informations. So for the first time in her two lives, she let her heart take the lead. She didn’t think, because she didn’t need to. She knew already. So she said:” I promise you. I will take care of them the best that I can.” Mikoto’s face relaxed when she heard her words. Slowly her eyes closed, and her hands started to let go. The smile on her face as she went out of this world was serene and content.

“Two” kissed the hand she was holding gently and then folded both Mikoto’s hands on her chest. She kneeled there for a while and then slowly turned her head towards Anko. The woman seemed at her wits end. She was staring unblinkingly at her, her face a mixture of incomprehension and puzzlement, but thankfully not fear. Finally Anko managed to croak: ”your, your, your eyes! That’s the Sharingan! You’ve awakened the Sharingan!”

“Two” scanned herself. Indeed she could feel chakra abnormally pooling in her eyes. She closed her eyes and opened them once again. She was now realizing that her vision was sharper. Like looking threw a microscope that automatically adjusted itself to what she wanted to see. So this was part of the power of the Sharingan. Interesting. But not for now. She went back to staring at Anko who had recovered some of her wit and was staring back at her. Sharing activated too. Both could hear voices of footsteps outside the shop. So the three other bastards had come. Good. She was in need of spilling blood. But she needed a plan. Sure her skills weren’t back to their peak, but her mind was back in business. No more running away.   
She put a finger in front of her mouth to tell signal Anko to shush and dragged the older woman to the back of the room, away from the door. They would comeback for Mikoto’s body later. Looking around her. She registered that they were in a seamstresses shop. A shop full of needles, threads and yarns and highly flammable dyes. A plan started forming in her head. She looked at Anko who was still staring at her and said: “Look we can talk later, when there is no one trying to kill us. I promise I will tell all you want to know. But for now I need you to do two things for me: First, keep what you heard a secret. No one can know. And second and most important: From now on, for all intents and purposes, I am Uchiha Izumi. That’s my name and that’s who I am. Nod if you understand and agree.”

Anko looked hesitant for a while but then determination shone in her eyes and she gave a firm nod.

Good. Because this world was going to see Uchiha Izumi’s wrath for the first time, and poor Anko didn’t deserve to be eaten by it too.


	4. Revenge and new beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! So this is my first ever author's note. I don't want to ramble a lot so I will try to get straight to the point. First, thanks for reading! I'm so happy that some people are enjoying this story. Second, I'm sorry for the many grammar and spelling mistakes. English is not my native language and I just get so exited when I finish a chapter that I just post it after reading it a couple of times. I try to catch as many mistakes as I can, and I will go back and edit everything once I find a beta-reader. And last, we are finally getting to the part of the story that I enjoy the most. All of this was kind of a really really long prequel to get the MC into the frame of mind she needs to be at. But she still hasn't finished growing. Also, one of my favorite characters in the anime, Hashirama, will make his debut in a couple of chapters so I'm working fast to get there. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Izumi cracked open the door of the seamstress’s shop and peered outside. Indeed the three other Chinoki men were in the street examining the corpses of their fallen comrades. She knew that she could take one of them if she put her mind to it, but to face the three at the same time she will have to use every trick she had learned in her previous career, instead of chakra and jutsu. Going back into the shop she made sure everything was ready. Attached to her belt were two newly made pouches she had found, each containing a dozen or so chenille needles that had some type of really long thread or yearn firmly tied to their eye linking them in pairs. She wished she could have access to wire for the plan to be better, but beggars can’t be chooser. And in any case, these were going to be just a distraction so it didn’t matter. In her sleeve was another smaller pouch that had small crewel needles in them. And finally, Anko had just finished filling the second bucket they had found with a mix of all the dyes of the shop. The older woman wasn’t convinced of the validity of the plan, but being a reincarnated soul gave her authority somehow. Izumi knew that it was farfetched, and that, if she wasn’t quick but steady, it could go horribly wrong. But she also knew that she had some advantages. First, since she was in the body of a five years old, the enemy would underestimate her a great deal. Second, the people of this world associated fighting with chakra and jutsu, and this type of multi-layered plan wouldn’t cross their minds in a million years. Even Anko had agreed on this point; it was also the only reason she agreed to give it a try. And third, in the cover of the night her newly obtained sharingan gave her the advantage of a clear vision which her opponents lacked. Hopefully they wouldn’t notice until it was too late.

She looked at Anko and said:” now all you need to do is go upstairs with the buckets, find the window overlooking the street and wait for my signal.” Anko gulped, but she nodded anyway and started making her way towards the stairs leading to the first floor. When she was at the bottom she turned around and added:” Be careful. You gave Mikoto-sama your word.”. And then she disappeared in the stairs.

Izumi made her way towards the door and gave Mikoto’s body a final look. _Here goes nothing,_ she thought before stepping outside.

As soon as she was outside, three pairs of eyes snapped towards her. The street was abnormally empty and a new presence was quickly noticeable. She made a show of glaring at her opponents while discreetly scanning her surroundings. Thankfully, the streets of the Uchiha compound were always narrow and the lengths of thread she had on her would be enough to go from side to side multiple times. The shinobi facing her were also different from their first opponents. Clearly they were in their late teens instead of middle age. They might be skilled if they made the cut for such an operation, but she knew experience was on her side. And also she remembered that the Chinoki’s strongest fighters were killed the last time they attacked the Uchiha. The ones left were the few who didn’t participate in the first coup, like Homura, or the ones who would have been a liability. So she might be lucky and not have to face strong opponents. But she would still give these bastards her full attention. One of them drew a kunai and rushed towards her but she skillful dodged and gave him a fierce quick that sent him stumbling. The other two needed no encouragement to jump into action too. They had no qualms about ganging up on a little girl. And that was exactly what she wanted. She started leading the fight towards were she wanted, making it look like she was trying to attack them with her needles but failing, due to lack of experience. The small threads were hidden in the shadow of the night, as she kept attacking and they kept dodging the fierce little demon she was. She also had to continuously dodge their attacks and they had given her quite a few scratches, but so far neither party had landed a critical hit. The Sharingan was also a great help. It was giving her a special awareness like she never had before, which helped with intricate web of threads she was building. But it was also eating up at her chakra really fast and she knew she would have to be quick if she wanted to be able to execute her plan to its end. When the last chenille needle was thrown she stopped jumping around and gave her opponents a devious smile. They halted too, seeming a bit confused, but one of them had already started making the hand signs for a Doton jutsu. Too late. The kunai that never left her left hand cut one the threads, and like a domino effect, the web started shifting in shapes forming ties and knots that trapped the three chinoki in them. She knew that it wouldn’t take them more than a few seconds to understand that they could just cut them with their kunai and free themselves but that was all she needed. Jumping in the air, so as to have a clear view of everyone, she took the crewel needles out of her sleeve and flung them expertly, each hitting the eye of one opponent, effectively blinding them. They all let out screams and groans and clutched their faces in pain, having freed their hands. But it was not over yet. She screamed:” Now, Anko!”. She had made sure to drag them under the window where Anko was hiding and as soon as she gave the signal and got out of the way, two successive splashes were heard and the Chinoki were covered in dye. Highly flammable dye. That was all she needed to execute the signs for the katon justsu she had yet to master. The three teens caught on fire instantaneously, and continued to burn even as she run out of chakra ,running around like headless chicken before falling to the ground.

Izumi, just stood there watching the flames burn into the night. A hand came to rest on her shoulder after a while and she slowly looked up to see Anko standing beside her. The doors of the houses on the streets started opening, and slowly some women and children started to come out. Even out of the seamstresses shop came out two women, one old and one that looked in her thirty’s. _So it’s not they weren’t here, it’s just that they were hiding,_ she bitterly thought. But she didn’t blame them. She knew that even if the Uchiha claimed to train all of their women, skilled ones like Mikoto and to some extent Anko were exceptions. Most of the women didn’t take the training seriously and left after doing the bare minimum. Mikoto had told her that what had attracted Tajima to her was her exceptional fierceness and prowess in the battlefield. That’s how she went from a regular clan member of civilian lineage to the wife of the clean head. So the women who chose to hide were actually helping by not becoming a liability. That’s still didn’t explain why no patrol came to help. Did these idiots all leave their posts and run off to only god knows where, just to be part of the action? Just look at what it had cost them.

Everybody stood in silence watching the still burning flames. The scent of burnt flesh was heavy in the air but nobody made a move to leave. They all had their eyes fixed on the small silhouette of a bloody five year old girl, kunai in hand, fixing a blazing fire that wasn’t dimming, her eyes blood red with a small black coma like pattern. The scene was mesmerizing, beautiful in its tragedy; they couldn’t tear their eyes away.

Suddenly hurried footsteps where heard. Like the sound of an army rushing towards them. More and more voices kept coming their way. The newly arrived crowed stopped a few steps from where she was. Their loud murmurs started to quiet down when nobody made a move to explain what was happening to them. Suddenly a young voice came from behind her: “Izumi?”. It was Madara. He had split from the crowed and came to meet her. She finally turned her back to the flames, and faced him as well as the crowd. They were all back. The shinobi who went to fight the Senju. At the front stood, Tajima ,his second and third in command ,as well as Izuna and Hikaku. Madara was of course right next to her, hand tightly clutching her elbow. They were all bloodied, dark blue and black mantles cut at different places and some looked in serious need of a doctor, but thankfully not the one that mattered to her. Tajima’s Sharingan was active, expression tense but not betraying any of his feelings. She met his inquiring gaze with eyes that were equally red, clueing him, without words, on what had happened. From his pained expression, that went as quickly as it came, she knew he had understood.

The funeral was held three days later.

On that night, she had stood silently in the street, as Anko explained what had happened to her clan head, while some men rushed to stop the fire and clean up the mess. Madara and Izuna let sharp cries and run to the shop looking for their mother. She didn’t follow them and neither did Tajima. She knew the man enough by now to know that, under his calm and detached demeanor, he was boiling with rage. She watched as he started barking orders at his men. He was going to get to the bottom of what happened that night; and then there was going to be hell to pay. Nobody will rest until the Uchiha got their revenge. When all the orders were given he turned to her. After sighing loudly, he closed his eyes painfully and crouched next to her: “So young, and yet you already have the Sharingan”. Noticing her pale face, that signaled she was running out of chakra and yet struggling to hold on, he direct her on how to deactivate her Sharingan, and she felt better once her eyes no longer felt like an oven that was burning her reserves of energy. Anko had gone to deal with the wounded soldiers and so he tried to find someone to take her home, but she stubbornly refused. She made her intent on participating in the Uchiha revenge quite clear; after all she had fought as valiantly as any other shinobi.

Tajima was not one to indulge his kids on a normal day, but he was clearly tired and the situation was anything but normal and so he agreed to let her tag along with him. Their first stop was the shop where Mikoto was. Izuna and Madara were by her side and refused to let anyone come near her, even when the men ordered to take care of the body came to do their job. Their faces bathed in tears, but no Sharingan she noted, they looked as their father also knelt next to his wife and looked at her silently. Izumi, knelt between them and held their hands in hers, a silent but comforting gesture. The only one she could think of. She was an orphan herself, somehow for a second time, but she didn’t know what to say or do. So she said nothing. Only time could heal this wound. Madara was the first to come back to his senses. Eyes seething with anger and venom he said:” Father we cannot let this slide!”. Izuna was never too far behind his brother and his eyes shone in the same way as he looked at his father. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she worried that the two kids weren’t grieving their mother in a healthy way. But she had no right to judge, she whose first response to the loss was burning three young adults alive. Tajima gave them a look: “Patience. We will get our revenge. I swear to you that your mother will only lie in her grave when the ones responsible for her demise are all dealt with. No mercy and no compromise this time. The Uchiha have to make it clear that we always repay those who betray us tenfold. But first we have to get to the bottom of this. We can’t send our men blindly. We have to make a plan. And trust me, our justice will be severe and anything but swift.”

Izumi agreed with his reasoning and so did the others. After a minute of silence in Mikoto’s memory, they let the men do their jobs and left for Tajima’s office. It was not her first time in the administration building, she had come to deliver some bentos and messages, but it was her first time seeing it in such a chaotic state. Usually this was one of the places were strict military order was king. But today, everybody was rushing around, in and out, from office to office. The Uchiha were on high alert.

The now family of four settled in the office, Tajima behind his desk, the kids in the big conference table. People kept coming in and out, bringing in reports and asking for directives. Izuna and Izumi stayed silent the whole time, while Madara sometimes went to his father’s side and gave some input. It was her first time seeing him in shinobi mode and she had to give it to him: he was a born leader. The Uchiha valued strength the most, and even at age eight Madara had taken down his first adult Senju around a month and a half earlier. Chinoki Homura had even called him a small demon. His reputation was starting to grow, and even adult Uchiha gave him a great deal of respect. His father also seemed to value his opinion.

It took the intelligence department a few hours but by mid-day, they had the full story:

The Chinoki clan was greatly displeased with their subordinate role to the Uchiha, believing that they were an equal force (that earned a few snickers). They decided to attack the Uchiha and annihilate them to prove their superiority. But the first attack had failed miserably and half the clan was gone just like that. Chinoki Homura was elected leader on the spot, and had rushed to try and make amends with the Uchiha. But he was also a proud man and he knew that if they gave in to the Uchiha’s demands their clan would go under very fast. So he decided to make a gamble and contacted the Senju Clan for an alliance, hoping that they would be more merciful. But if the Senju lacked anything, it wasn’t allies. The Chinoki didn’t have much to offer and they dragged behind them the reputation of a traitor clan, so the Senju weren’t sold on the idea. However, Senju Butsuma, the sly fox, saw an opening. The Chinoki still had access to the Uchiha compound, and could help steal valuable Uchiha scrolls, burn some of their granaries and most importantly kidnap Uchiha Mikoto, the clan leader’s wife, someone who had access to the clans innermost secrets and could also serve as emotional blackmail if all else failed. And so he came up with a plan. The Senju would act as a distraction, causing the Uchiha to rush out to fight, while the Chinoki would discreetly kidnap Mikoto and every high ranking clan member they could. Once they delivered them, the Senju would accept the alliance and take the weakened Chinoki under their wing. That was too much to ask of the Chinoki. The handful of shinobi left weren’t that good, but for the sake of his clan ,Homura embarked with some of his best elements on this suicide mission. Once the signal was given, they rushed to kill the Uchiha coordination unit, effectively cutting out the clan’s communication and causing the chaos that ensued. Seven mid-rank Uchiha shinobi were gone just like that. And while the clan was unguarded, they tried to take Mikoto and her daughter. But that was not knowing her well because she put up one hell of a fight, and would have gotten away if she wasn’t trying to protect her daughter. The Chinoki leader seeing the situation turn against them, decided that killing her was good to. It would deal a heavy hit to the Uchiha, and put the Senju in a tight spot. The Chinoki leader had just given his life to try and fulfill his contract with the Senju. Even if the mission wasn’t complete, he had proven his clan’s intentions and the honorable thing to do was to give a hand to what was left of them. 

When Hikaku had gone to his squad leader with Izumi’s suspicions, the man went to the coordination division’s office and found their bodies. He immediately knew they had been played and sent Hikaku to call back Tajima, while he and the two other kids in his squad led the children and women to safety. He just didn’t get to where Izumi was fast enough because at the end this was a large clan. When Tajima received the news, he was fighting his rival Butsuma, and the other man just smirked and ordered a retreat. The Senju weren’t serious about the fight; they were just stalling for time. He had even brought his kids along, like if they were going on a field trip. Madara didn’t see any of them as he was otherwise engaged, but Izuna had fought some kid named Tobirama the whole time. They seemed to be on par, and that was the only reason he made it out of there alive. Izumi didn’t want to think about what would have happened if he was met with a more experienced shinobi. Anyway, when they retreated and rushed back to the compound it was already too late. Nine people were dead including a shinobi who had met the squad Izumi had killed before he could join his group.

Once the story was made clear, the Uchiha started gearing up. The enemies were the rest of the Chinoki clan. None of them were going to be spared this time. Not even the kids, women and elderly. It was cruel, but these were cruel times. The Chinoki clan needed to disappear both to serve as an example and to quell the Uchiha’s anger. And most importantly, Tajima knew that his rival had probably already started moving towards the Chinoki territory to take it over, under the disguise of honoring his ally’s sacrifice, and he wasn’t going to let him have it his way. Never. Especially not after he had taken his beloved wife from him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that this was payback for him doing the exact same thing a couple of years ago, but it didn’t matter. This was war.

It was decided that only Madara will be going with him. Izuna and Izumi would stay behind with three other squads to protect the compound in case of a raid. After getting a complete recount of her actions of the previous night, the entire clan looked at her differently. Izuna and she were directly promoted to official shinobi. The matter of which squad they will belong to was left for later. Tajima gave them both a nod of approval, obviously proud. Madara was less enthusiastic and tried to refuse it, arguing their lack of training, but no one would listen to him. The twins took him aside and reassured him that they wouldn’t put themselves in harm’s way if it was possible. Izumi was an old soul and Izuna had clearly matured overnight, his innocence forever gone. And so Madara reluctantly agreed. Frankly, they were more worried about him. The probability of a surprise raid was quiet low, they were just being cautious , but he was going to the front were the real danger was. Izumi loathed not being able to keep him by her side but she had faith in him. Don’t get her wrong, she had been taught that child soldiers were a bad thing, but her life experience was different than most. She was trained in the art of assassination ever since she could remember and had her first high profile mission at age twelve. She knew that even a child was capable of real damage with the proper training. She was one of this kind of children. And so were Madara and Izuna.

While the men were packing up their gear, she hurried back home to prepare some dry foods for them. This usually was Mikoto’s job, but she tried not to think too much about that fact. When she handed all the carefully packed food she could whip out in such short notice to Madara and Tajima, there was a notable moment of silence. They all seemed to realize that Mikoto was really gone and that from now on Izumi would be the lady of the house. Expressions heavy, they thanked her and departed at the head of the Uchiha army, as she watched them while discreetly holding Izuna’s hand.

There was no surprise attack thankfully, and the victorious army came back early in the evening of the next day. It was a gory fight, but even if the Senju had prepared for longer, the Uchiha were ensnared. They wouldn’t let the death of one their leaders go un-avenged. And so after a few hours of battle, the Senju retreated deciding that the fire burning in the Uchiha’s eyes was too much that day ,and that the Chinoki lands weren’t worth it. They were greatly mistaken however. One of the reasons the Uchiha had chosen to ally with the Chinoki was that their land had many mines in them. Gold and Iron were their primary source of revenue. They kept it a secret to not attract unwanted attention and only mined a little at a time. Very few ally clans knew about it besides the Uchiha, and they only knew because they had found it odd that the Chinoki could readily supply them with material whenever they needed it, and had sent a spy to check. And now they had a reason to take over that land and eliminate the middle man.

It came at a cost however. A few lives were lost and the wounded piled up. Izumi had wanted to help when she noticed that Anko, the two other Uchiha medics and the independent doctors they had brought from outside, were struggling with simple procedures she used to force interns to do in her stead. But she also knew that, after her earlier performance, a lot of eyes were on her, and displaying an abnormal knowledge of medicine was pushing it too far. So after checking that Tajima and Madara were unharmed, she dragged Izuna with her to volunteer for nurse work. It baffled her that only after seeing them come to give a hand did the other women standing around come to the realization that they could help too. And so under Anko’s grateful gaze, she naturally started giving directions and orders to the other volunteers. Things started going faster after that, but it was already one in the morning when they made their way back home. Tajima and Madara had gone back earlier utterly exhausted by the battle. It looked like they already had the dinner she left for them on the table, and so she and Izuna ate alone in silence. They hadn’t talked much ever since Mikoto’s death, even if they spent every waking moment together. After washing up, they lay in their futons staring at the ceiling, unable to find sleep. At one point, the door to their room slide open, and Madara came in dragging his futon behind him. He silently laid it next to hers, making it so that she was sandwiched between her two brothers. And they all stared at the ceiling in silence. A slight gasp was heard to her right and she turned around to see Izuna’s face bathed in tears. He was biting his lips so as to stop the sounds of his sobs from coming out. He was trying to hold it in. Like a shinobi ,Tajima would tell him. But he was only five. And five years old kids are not supposed to hold it in. She got out of her futon and silently went to hug him. She held him in her arms, as he broke down and cried his eyes out. She herself shed tears she couldn’t, no, wouldn’t stop. At some point Madara joined them, taking both their little bodies in his embrace. She knew that he was a protective elder brother in nature, so she let him do the hugging, even if she was supposed to be the one taking care of him. It’s what he wanted. And what she needed. She had never experienced the loss of a loved one before, mainly because she didn’t have loved ones. And it was a pain like no other. Even if she only knew her for less than a month, Mikoto had come to mean a lot to her.

When she woke up in the morning, they were still in their awkward three-way hug, and so she had to wake them up ,if she wanted to get out and go make breakfast. Today was a busy day. It was the day of the funeral for all those who had died in this sordid affair. Everything was prepared by the ones who stayed behind in the compound; they were just waiting for everyone to get back. The warriors who went to fight, the shinobi who were on missions too faraway or that couldn’t be interrupted and the merchants of the clan on a trip to the Land of Water, where a cousin clan of the Uchiha, the Kaguya clan, lived.

Once they heard about the situation, they had sent a delegation with their condolences as well as some reinforcements. As the clan head’s kids and official shinobi, the twins were there to welcome them too, and she was a bit weirded out by their pale skins with two red dots near the eye-brows, zigzagging hairline, and blatant disappointment at having missed the fight. The elders just laughed it off, muttering something about how it was always like this with their idiot relatives.

Once everyone was up, she was the first to take a bath, and dress herself in mourning clothes. She went to the kitchen to prepare a good breakfast. This was going to be a long day and who knew when they would be able to eat again. Tajima was the first to join her in the living room and then the boys came one after the other already dressed too. They seemed better, even with their puffy eyes and dark eye bags from lack of proper sleep. That cry seemed to have done everybody a world of good.

Tajima was business as usual. Nobody really expected him to be giving out free hugs and comforting words. It even felt good to hear him give out strict directive on how to behave during the funeral and with the delegation from their allied clans and the neutral ones that came to offer condolences. It meant that even if everything had changed, they could still do normal. And this was his normal.

The day went by in haze. So many “sorry for your loss” and “thank you for coming/the flowers” were exchanged. The three of them stood between the elders and Tajima, backs straight and expressions rigid. None of them cracked when Mikoto’s coffin was lowered to the ground, unlike the other kids who had lost parents too. They couldn’t .Not with so many eyes around. After all, they were the future leaders of the clan. They got to grab a bite at around three in the afternoon, but even then delegations kept coming. Allies like the Kaguya, the Hagoromo and the Fuma. Neutral ones like the Nara, the Akimishi and the Yamanaka. An odd group of people that seemed to get along like peas in a pod, and had decided to stay out of the conflicts of the other shinobi clans altogether. It didn’t mean they were weak, just that they were smart and couldn’t be bothered to take a side.

When the night came, the Uchiha family went back to their home utterly exhausted. Even Tajima didn’t have any power left in him to scold or criticize. They ate leftovers of the reception that one of the women overseeing the event had packed for them, and just went to bed early. All of them were finally able to fall asleep and have a good night’s rest. It was finally over. And tomorrow would be a new beginning.

In the morning, she was the first to wake up and get started on her day. When she went into the kitchen, it hit her that there was no Mikoto to help anymore. She was on her own, to take care of a house that had four people living in it. But she could do it. This was nothing, she had faced worse. She had promised. And with that thought in mind, she got to work. The men were soon to join her in their usual attires. Tajima in his dark blue mantle with the uchiha crest in the back, and the boys in their training yukatas. They still lived in the shinobi world; every day they didn’t have to fight, they had to train. And it was better to go back to normal as soon as possible. It didn’t mean that they will forget Mikoto, just that it was better than staying at home to mope all day. She also was left with no trainer but she had a plan.

Looking at Tajima who was eating his omelet silently she started:” There is something that I need to tell you.”. Three black pairs of eyes were instantly on her, but she continued:” That day, mom and I had started on ninjustsu training, and we discovered that I have a bit of an exceptional control over my chakra. She took me to Anko’s, and long story short, we agreed that I will become her apprentice. I was thinking that I will start today.”

The boys were a bit surprised, and Tajima looked displeased:” I don’t know about that. You showed a lot of promise as a kunoichi and you already got your promotion. In time you could grow to become just like your mother. The Uchiha clan can’t afford to lose such a good shinobi in favor of you becoming a doctor.” Izumi didn’t like where he was going with this, and so she gave him a stern glance:” The Uchiha clan has nothing but fighters. What we lack is doctors. Good doctors, ones that know what they are doing. I have the potential to become one and mom agreed with me. That’s what she wanted, so that’s what’s going to happen. And I can do both. Medicine and training. We already agreed that I would train with the other at least twice a week, but I will up it to a minimum of four times a week. I won’t be the weak link for long, I promise. All I need is a bit of help around the house. The cooking and dishes, I can do. Even the sewing and picking up the groceries. All I need is help with the cleaning and landery. The widow, Misuki who comes to help around once a week can pick that up for me. But she needs to come more than once a week. At least once every other day. I refuse to live in a dump.” . Tajima and Izumi glared at each other for a while, but her eyes never wavered even under his intimidating stare. Madara and Izuna had retreated to the background, hiding behind their bowls of rice, eyes wide , clearly not planning on intervening.

After a while, Tajima did something no one was expecting. He smiled. That didn’t happen much. He went back to eating and said:” And here I thought you were a mousy little personality. You’ve got gut, I give you that at least. Fine, do as you want. But in a year, you better be ready to start taking missions like all the other shinobi your age. I won’t play favorites. As for the help around the house, I was already planning on having someone take a permanent day to day position. Even live with us for a while. But since you proposed so nicely, I’m not one to force you to go back on your word. It’s just means that I won’t have to pay as much, and for that I thank you.”. He smirked at her and then got up, picked up his sword and pouch and left the house.

Huh? What just happened? Did she win? Why does it feel like she shot herself in the foot somewhere along the line?

Madara’s and Izuna’s snide snickers only confirmed that she had. She shot them a glare, but it only made them laugh harder. These brats clearly didn’t respect her. She would have to teach them a lesson.

Madara however said, before she could start threatening them:” A medic, huh? When did you become interested in that? Not that I mind. I too believe that we need more doctors.” She just shrugged:” I just want to be useful. It seems like an area where I could be needed.” .The eldest Uchiha gave a nod. Izuna however had a much sweeter thought:” Well ,you just focus on learning a lot. Even more than those bastards Senju know about medicine. The Uchiha need to be the best at everything. That way, ni-san and I will become the greatest shinobi, and you’ll be the greatest doctor, who patches us up when needed. Which won’t be a lot because nobody will be able to get to us.” His eyes were shining with excitement. Madara only shook his head smiling, but she could see the same fire burning in his eyes. And she said ”Ok let’s follow your plan!”

After breakfast, the brothers left first, but only after clearing the table. She said she would do most of the job, but she wasn’t their maid either. Tajima was probably a lost cause but, these boys were going to learn some self-reliance. There wasn’t much to do around the house, as they had barely lived in it for the past few days, and laundry was no longer her problem, so she finished early and headed towards Anko’s.

The small clinic was empty ,as all the wounded had already been carried back to their houses, and nobody was sick or hurt today apparently. Anko was behind her counter reading something. When she heard the door open and saw who came in, her expression became grave. Izumi wordlessly went to sit at the same table she had sat at a few days ago. Back before everything changed. Back when she still thought of herself as “Two” instead of Uchiha Izumi. Anko came to sit facing her, with two cups of steaming hot tea. She gave her one, and the two sat in silence for a while. Izumi didn’t know where to start , so she opened with: ”I believe you have some questions for me.”


	5. Good and bad news

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, it's me again. Thanks again for reading. So this is kind of a slow chapter, but I needed it to set up the foundation for what's going to happen next. I don't like stories where the author just invents something on the spot to justify his character's actions, so I'm doing my best to avoid that. The next chapter is probably going to be a lot longer than this because I really want Hashirama to make his debut. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! And RIP Kurama! This chapter is dedicated to you, you old fox!

“I believe you have some questions for me”

Anko also seemed to not know where to start, so she settled for: ”You-You are not Izumi? But how is that possible? I have known her for her entire life, and you look exactly just like her. How is this even possible? And where is the real Izumi?”

Izumi sipped a little bit of her tea trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. But nothing came to mind and so she decided to tell the truth, or at least what she knew of it:” I don’t understand how this happened either. All I know is that I come from another world. On the night I died, I woke up expecting to be in hell, but instead I found myself here in the body of Uchiha Izumi. I believe she died of her injuries and I took her place for some reason. We seem to share the same first name, and our faces are identical, that may have something to do with it.”

Anko took her time digesting the news. It sounded crazy. It was crazy. But it also was reality. Finally she said:” So you reincarnated? And you have no idea how?” Izumi gave a slight nod, holding Anko’s gaze. Finally the older woman sighed and said:” I believe you. I witnessed too much on that night not to. That stunt you pulled on the Chinoki shinobi wasn’t something sweet and shy Izumi would have been capable of. It wasn’t something a lot of experienced shinobi would have been capable of. But nobody else can know about this. They will think you’re crazy and even if they don’t they wouldn’t be as understanding as me.” Izumi gave a dry laugh:” I wasn’t planning on shouting it on the streets either. But Mikoto seemed to trust you enough to talk freely in your presence, so I trust you too. To some extent. And I need at least someone on my side if I’m going to get through this.”Anko nodded seriously, silently agreeing to offer her help. Then she titled her head to the side, curious, and asked:” So who are you then?”.

That, believe it or not, was a harder question to answer. But she gave it a try anyway:” Well, my birth name was Izumi, but I’m much more used to being called “Two”. It was both my name and my rank in the organization I used to work for. I was thirty-three years old when I died. No husband, no kids. No family in fact, besides an adoptive brother and a nephew. I used to work as a surgeon, so I have experience in medicine. And I should also mention that I was a spy and an assassin for the earlier mentioned organization. A career of twenty-one years, give or take.” . Anko’s eyes were wide, and her eyebrows were up to her hairline. When she digested the information she just received she started asking:” A spy and an assassin? Is that like a shinobi?”. Izumi answered: “ I never thought about it that way, but the two job descriptions seem to overlap a bit. Although we never took protection jobs like you seem to do in here. And we never got into open wars like the clans in here do. Our existence was a secret and if the public came to know about it, it would have caused an uproar. And we only worked for the government of our nation.” Anko seemed to understand the rough description she was giving her, and she chose to stop at that. There was no need to talk more about that part of her life. All Anko needed to know was that she had some useful skills. But she also had to make sure the healer knew something: “ The biggest difference between my old world and here is Chakra. We didn’t have that. Taijustsu ,as you saw, I can handle. But all that ninjustu and genjutsu stuff is foreign to me. The only jutsu I know was taught to me by Mikoto and even that I struggle with.” Anko’s eyebrows shot up once again:” No chakra? I can’t imagine living in a world without chakra.” .Izumi snorted:” Trust me it’s possible. And in a way it’s kind of better like that, because the human race had to get creative to survive. And well let’s face it, to fight its wars. My point is that our advancement in the fields of research and science is leaps and bounds ahead of yours.” That seemed to get Anko’s full attention. She kind of guessed where Izumi was going, and so she asked seriously: “ You said you were a surgeon. I believe that’s some sort of healer. I heard the term before, but surgery is not a developed practice in here.”

Izumi was glad they were getting to the important stuff this fast. She was liking Anko more and more by the minute. The woman seemed to roll with the punches and not mind how strange the situation was as long she got something out of it. And Izumi had plenty to give:”I don’t like the word healer, I prefer doctor. But, yes, I was a surgeon. And not just any surgeon ,one of the best in the country. With the prizes and diplomas that come with it. And I want to use my training in here. I have knowledge that this world will probably take centuries to get to. But I’m also under no illusion that it’s enough. Chakra production and the use of jutsu must mean that there are some serious differences in the anatomy of the humans here. And let’s not talk about all the complication that follow on the cellular and molecular level. That’s where you come in. I believe that if we combine both our knowledge, we could revolutionize the world of medicine, and make some real contributions. So what do you say?”

Anko’s eyes were positively shining. Izumi knew that she had already made the sale. The old healer smiled and said: ”Of course I’m in. You might already know, this but medicine is my whole life. I got into this field when my husband died more than twenty years ago of an injury that could have been healed if we had the skill the Senju clan has. I’m not really book smart and I started learning a bit late, but I did my best and strived to keep this clinic going even after my old sensei died. But I think you already guessed how the Uchiha behave regarding medicine. They don’t care about giving funding until they need you to bring back the dead, and when you say that you can’t ,they blame you for being incompetent. The new generation seems to be different and a lot of them are questioning the old methods and values of the clan, but for the elders who make the decisions, if you can put bandages and fix broken bones enough to send the shinobi back to battle again, then that’s good enough.”

Izumi frowned. She had already guessed the inclinations of the clan, but hearing her suspicions confirmed only upset her. This was going to be more of an uphill battle than she thought. But another thing got her attention too:” What do you mean by the skill the Senju have. I know that, here, they are public enemy number one, but that’s all I got. How are they better than the Uchiha in medicine?”

Anko looked worriedly at the door. She got up, opened the door and flipped the closed sign, and closed it back again. Then she came back, picked up her half full cup of tea, and went to the backroom, gesturing for Izumi to do the same. Curious, she followed her, cup of tea in hand too, because it would be a shame to waste such a good brew. The back room was a rudimentary laboratory. It was really big with shelves all over the walls. 3 walls were full of pots and jars that probably had medicine in them, while the fourth was full of books and scrolls. The room was illuminated by a large window with a sink underneath it. Although underneath that sink was a large bucket, so she guessed that the waste disposal system here was the same as in her house. The door was kind of in the middle of the wall and so the room seemed to be dived into two almost symmetrical halves, with a two large island counters smack in the middle on each half, and two stools per counter. She was led to sit in one them by Anko, and know she was waiting for an explanation. The older woman sighed and said: “Trust me it doesn’t matter if someone overhears us talking about reincarnation, they will just think that we are crazy or under some genjutsu. But if we are heard praising the Senju over any matter, we will be burnt alive while the kids sheer. This lab is more private, and since we are going to work together, you have to get acquainted with your new work place.” Izumi agreed with her. The Uchiha were quite dramatic in nature, no need to rub them the wrong way.

“So the Senju?” she reminded Anko. Another heavy sigh:” Well I guess I should start by telling you more about them in general. They are more known as “the Senju clan of the forest”. Likely because some of their ancestors had a kekkei genkai called the Mokuton. It’s the ability to combine Doton and Suiton to make wood, and vegetation in general, grow. However some think that it’s just a legend, as no Mokuton user have been seen in decades, maybe centuries. Another one of their specificities is their strong life force. Only rivaled by their cousin clan the Uzumaki. They are to the Senju, what the Kaguya are to us, but let’s leave this for another time. Like I said, an exceptional life force, that gives them large chakra reserves and the ability to heal faster or hold on longer in case of grave injuries. Moreover, they have a different approach to clan life than ours. More sociable, more outgoing, while the Uchiha tend to stick to ourselves and value our clan members more. They also don’t look down as much as we do on non shinobi, which led to a lot of their clan members choosing civilian lives, especially in the fields of agriculture and medicine. What I am trying to say is: Thanks to their farmers they are almost independent when it comes to food, and so that’s money saved. And the noisy bastards, with their outgoing personalities have become like the patron saints of the farmers of the Land of Fire, almost rivaling the daimyo in that regard, but not quite. That brings in a lot of money. The money is used mainly on the shinobi’s equipment and training. Even their evil spawns get fitted armors by this point. And they have enough money left after that to invest in medical research and fancy rare-plants-growing. Their medics are the best in the nation. Even the Nara with their enormous pharmacological knowledge go to them when they are stuck. Sometimes even the Uchiha have to go through the black market to get some of their salves at an exorbitant price. And better medics combined with their freakish bodies means better life expectancy. They have thrice as many elders as we do, which is like twelve to fifteen people at best, but that’s still something when the average death age in a shinobi clan is somewhere near thirty years old. And let’s not talk about the fact there are twice as many of them as there are of us. It’s like they grow on trees or something. But a large chunk of that are civilians, as I said ,so it kind of evens out on the battlefield.”

By this point Anko was almost puffing out smoke out of her nose in anger. Izumi had understood what she meant so she decided to stop her rambling:” Ok, I get it.No need to say more. But if they are so wealthy and clearly better fighters and strategists than us, how the hell are we keeping up with them and calling ourselves their rivals? And why have no steps been taken to remedy to this situation?”

Anko looked at her with an almost comically outraged look:” Who said anything about them being better fighters? I will have you know that we kick their asses as much as they kick ours. Things are at a standstill. We win once; they win once, with no clear better. That’s why the Uchiha are feared and also in high demand. Only we can hold them back. And don’t forget about our kekkei genkai. You only just awakened the Sharingan, and don’t know how to use it, but in able hands its destructive power is greater than anything you know. Someday, you might get to see Tajima-sama fighting Butsuma, the leader of the Senju and their strongest fighter. At this point, he has to invent a new jutsu every time he thinks about facing Tajima-sama if he wants to keep his life, and even that gets copied instantly. As for your question about why we did nothing about the current economical situation, well, it’s because of our eternal problem, worse than the Senju in some regards: The elder council. The old shmucks think that, because they made old bones by always hiding and cowering on the battlefield, they can lord over us and keep us going towards our demise. And they have a strong tool in their hands: the Uchiha’s respect for traditions. Anytime someone tries to deviate in a way that will take away some of their power they whip it out. And sadly it works most of the time. They are the reason why we keep encouraging everyone to become shinobi instead of branching out. And now, to our shame, sometimes we even buy products from merchants we know are supplied by the Senju and their minions. Otherwise we will have to go out of the land of Fire to get a freaking tomato. “

Anko sighed loudly. Her tone had risen to a level Izumi didn’t think her capable of. It spoke of her frustration. After getting her composure back, she continued softly:” But it’s not all bad. The younger generation is starting to wake up and every day they have less and less power. There’s Uchiha Tekka, a newly retired shinobi of fifty years on the council now, and he is all for change. And even I fought to get a seat, even if I had to threaten to stop giving them their arthritis medicine to get it. Some of the merchants had the idea of selling the weapons we make a few years back, and they are a huge hit because of their quality. Hopefully, with the new mines we have now, we can increase the quantity of our goods and get some real income, not just live on the money we get from missions.”

Izumi pensively said:” I guess that if they control agriculture, we might get our hands on industry. That could help”. The two of them fell into a heavy silence each to her own thoughts. Izumi knew that the situation of the clan was bad, but she had never guessed it would be that bad. The Uchiha might think that they are the Senju’s equals but they clearly weren’t. Results on the battlefield didn’t matter. They were sitting on ticking bomb and they had no idea. She wasn’t an expert on the matter, but in her last life she had been ordered to date a politician, the head of a small new popular party, to keep an eye on him. The guy was a political beast, but he liked to hear himself talk and thus she had learned quite a bit from him. Enough to analyze this situation that is. In this world, industry wasn’t really developed, just artisans with small shop here and there that took forever to make something that could have been made in bulk, in few seconds, in a factory. So the main sectors were agriculture and trading. Agriculture was the source of everything that mattered here. Food and clothing. And right now, the Senju had control over it. Somehow, they haven’t come to the realization that they didn’t need to fight the Uchiha, they just had to cut them out. If their access to food and clothing material was gone, they will have to start getting it from elsewhere, other countries that were also barely struggling to feed their own. That costs more money than they could afford, and earns more enemies that they could handle. All in all, the Uchiha would have to either surrender, starve to death, or go into a suicidal battle to beat the Senju once and for all, which clearly they couldn’t do, or they already would have. Shit, they are in so much trouble.

The good news, however, was that it wasn’t all lost. Clearly, the battle-centric mind frame of the clans was working in their favor. She didn’t think that this world was capable of birthing the kind of analytical mind that could do the math like she just did yet. Especially not in a warrior clan. And even if it happened, it would take a decade or so for such a plan to be thought of, get the leaders and elders approval, and then to get the merchants and farmers to implement it secretly so as not to tip off the Uchiha early.

If, in the few years that are coming, they could work the sector of the industry they might be saved. Industry was a fickle thing. It wasn’t exactly essential, but if you can come up with products that facilitate people’s lives, and then slowly work your way up into luxury goods, the people will start getting used to it and at some point your once luxury products become essentials that people refuse to part with. Like faucets. People can always get their water from wells or rivers free of charge, but someone who does that instead of just paying the utility bill is labeled crazy. Izumi was thinking about how to get the Uchiha to stop wasting time and get to work, but she was stuck. Anko already had her hands full with keeping these idiots alive and well, and she didn’t want to add to her worries just yet. If she was reincarnated as someone older, like a teenager or something she might be able to do something. Clearly anyone above ten years old held a bit of authority in this place, but she was only five . She would have to put a pin on this matter for later.

She looked at Anko, who was still deep in thought, probably trying to cast a curse on the Senju or the elders, if you could trust the gnashing of her teeth. Amused, she said” So, medicine?”.

That seemed to snap the healer out of it. She went back to her usual laid back self and said: ”Yes, medicine. If you are already a doctor then you know a lot more than what I was initially expecting. But, for the sake of the clan, we will still say that you are my apprentice. Depending on how fast we go and how much we can actually achieve, I was thinking I will start spreading the rumor that you are some sort of medical genius. Our clan loves geniuses. They are already calling both your brothers that. That way it wouldn’t be too strange if you start helping around in the clinic faster than expected. But first, I need to test your knowledge. Not that I doubt you or anything, after all I believed you when you said that you were some sort of over thirty reincarnated assassin in the body of a five years old girl. But you understand that I can’t let you touch patients if I don’t know you can handle it.”

Izumi smiled sweetly and said: “That goes without saying. But first, it’s lunch time and I’m starving. Could we go grab a bite? Your treat. After all you are my sensei now”. Anko gave a not so classy snort:” I see that you won’t be an easy student. But there is no need to go anywhere. I live right upstairs. We can cook something for ourselves. I still remember the food you made last time I visited your house. You seem to be quite the chef.”. Izumi didn’t mind ,and so they went upstairs. The second floor was divided into two separate sections each with its own door. One she already knew was a second ward with beds and medical supplies that was used when there weren’t enough beds down stairs. The other she stepped into for the first time. It was a small but neat apartment. Anko lived alone and she spent most of her time in her clinic, so she didn’t need much space. They happily worked in the small kitchen, and Izumi finally knew where the fish she had practiced on came from. Anko kept an aquarium in her kitchen with six or seven mid-size fish at all time. She told her that she practiced chakra healing on them, and cooked them when she was done. They didn’t look happy about it.

That got them into talking about experiments and, while Anko admitted that she didn’t experiment much because she didn’t know how to, she seemed fascinated when Izumi told her about some of the research she had done. In her last life, her medical career had influenced her style as an assassin, and so aside from the sanctioned research she did at the hospital, she was also granted a fully financed laboratory by the organization, to work on her poison making research. She had come up with some gems in there, and did everything from cooking meth at one point (infiltrating a drug cartel to kill it’s leader was never easy) , to reverse engineering a vaccine made by a neighboring country and slipping the results in the lab of some idiot who thought he had stumbled upon it by accident.

During and after lunch they continued their enthusiastic talk about medicine, and by the end it had become clear that Izumi was going to be doing most of the teaching in the future. She also learned that, thankfully, the previous Izumi was literate as were most kids of the clan, so it wouldn’t be weird if she brought some reading material home. When Anko showed her the books, she was familiar with the hiragana and katakana, as well as half the kanji. The other half she would have to either infer from context or the similarities with the ones she knew; or she could always ask Anko. The difficult part was that most of her knowledge was in English and that she will have to translate it in order to impart it and compare it to the one of this world.

They were interrupted several times by people coming in to get treatment and pick up prescriptions. The news that the clan head’s daughter was becoming Anko’s apprentice was spreading like wild fire, and some people even came in to check for themselves, and then left thoughtful. When the sun started setting, she bid Anko goodbye, leaving the woman to process the happenings of the day, and rushed home with some anatomy books she had wanted to go over in the hours between dinner and bedtime. She was the first one back and went to work on dinner as soon as she freshened up. It was kind of weird having to fetch a stool to reach the high shelves. She felt like one of those kids who played with their easy bake ovens. She wondered if One’s kid was enjoying the one she got him. She had picked it on a whim one day, One and his outsider wife begged her to babysit. She had wanted to make a good impression on the two years old and a gift seemed a good way to start.

With a sigh she went back to work trying to shake these thoughts away. This always happened when she let her mind wander. She started thinking about her adoptive brother and his little family. Did he get her letter? She had worked really hard at finding where he had went into hiding when he faked his death, after that snitch “Five” reported him to “Command”. He had thought that “One” was just going to be demoted for starting a civilian family without approval. And he would take his place. How stupid. No wonder the best he ever got was the fifth position. She had a fun time torturing him however before killing him. And then getting rid of the Organization. Now, “One” and his family could live like normal people. She hoped they would. And that kid better go to college and make something of himself. She kind of did it for him too. After she had stopped calling him “the Thing”, when he reached three years and started kicking up a fuss whenever she did, she had to admit that she liked the little fellow. And when the Organization had ordered her, a year after he went into hiding with his father, to kill a bunch of kids his age to cause some sort of diplomatic incident that needed to happen for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. If their existence was for the good of the nation, then how is killing a bunch of kids and breaking the hearts of the ones who love them going to achieve that? There had to be a better a way. And now that there is no one to do the dirty work, those politicians will have to find it. She had no regrets. She only wondered if One and the Thing were going to miss her or be sad that she is gone.

When dinner was ready she put it on the table and started going through one of the anatomy scrolls. The others were going to be here any minute now. Her own family. Just like One’s. Sure enough, Izuna barged in first. He kept complaining about what was fair and what wasn’t as he went to change and freshen up, and then unceremoniously sit at the table and glare at the door. Apparently, half-way through the afternoon training, Madara was summoned to attend a meeting in the administrative building and he was left out. It wasn’t fair because he was a promoted shinobi now, even if it would take few months to assign him to a permanent squad. But Madara and Hikaku didn’t have an official squad either, they just migrated between squads, filling in when needed like on the day of the attack, and they were both invited. Izumi seriously showed her indignation that the great Uchiha Izuna would be disregarded like this, and after accepting it gratefully, he finally noticed her mocking smile and went back to raging. At this point, Tajima and Madara came home together. Madara slipped as discreetly as possible into his room, to avoid being hit by Izuna’s indignant words, while Tajima just royally ignored him and muttered something about not having signed up for this.

When they were all back, and sitting at the table , she put the scroll away, and Izuna had already changed his tune, bragging about having come on top in some taijustsu competition they had, as well as the new jutsu he was working on. He had already mastered the Gokakyuu no jutsu, but during his fight with Senju Tobirama, the kid was able to counter it with an equally powerful Suiton jutsu. That got all their attention. Tajima and Madara started giving him pointers, having already met this kind of situation, while she listened intently to get as much information as she could. Dividing her time between training and medicine was going to cost her, and she needed to know as much as possible to be able to save herself sometime when she practiced her own jutsus. When she had one that is. After a while, the conversation drifted to the subject of today’s meeting.

Tajima was not a great father exactly. He treated his kids like if they were his students. They would probably never know if he actually liked them, or if had wanted to be a father to begin with. Mikoto used to swear up and down that he did, and that he wasn’t just complying with his duty as clan head. She swore that he was actually a good person, deep down and that they would see it when they were more mature. Izumi thought so too. She had seen worst parents and witnessed horror stories, and so far even if he seemed to demand a lot of his kids, he didn’t actually force them to do anything. That might have to do with the fact they were all hard workers on their own, but that could be a sign that his parenting style actually worked. Surely the boys nice and kind personalities didn’t come just from Mikoto. Nonetheless, he was by every definition a great teacher. His mission was to train the three of them to be leaders of the Uchiha, especially Madara, and he was doing a stellar job at that. He gave practical examples, explained the why of everything, and included his kids in a lot of the clan’s running to give them the hands-on experience they would need. Madara was always by his side, and as he was growing, Izuna was starting to do so too. He had also giving Izuna the responsibility of leading a small group of his peers in their training, under the watchful eyes of a supervisor of course. He seemed to have left Izumi’s education to her mother, surely due to his lack of experience dealing with girls (he had had only sons until she got there), but she knew that he treated her with the same attention as the others now. And now he was explaining to them how the Uchiha planned to exploit their new lands and mines. It was as Anko thought, they were going to get more independent contractors to mine them, sell the gold as is (there wasn’t much of it anyway apparently), and use the Iron to make weapons both to use and sell. It came with its fair load of burdens however, as they would have to ensure the security of the mines now and the shipments too. But they also had the remains of the old Chinoki compound and could use them as a second base of operation closer to the mines.

Finally the conversation drifted to her day. She felt shy all of a sudden, not used to talking about her day, because Mikoto used to do that for her, but she gave it a go anyway. She explained that they were going to start with theoretical knowledge first, like anatomy and the properties of plants, and then get to the practical, like stitching, chakra healing and making salves. They had also decided that she will train a bit with Anko, but starting next week she will join Izuna’s group in the mornings and leave after lunch. The boys listened clearly interested, as they hadn’t had prior knowledge about what it takes to be a healer, and Tajima was satisfied with her training schedule as it was more than most kunoichi in-training did. And there were still the training sessions he sometimes gave the boys at night, which will include her too now.

After they were done, and after receiving a glare from her that reminded them of this morning’s threats, Madara cleared the table, while she washed the dishes and Izuna dried and put them back in their place. Tajima watched, clearly unimpressed and with no intention to join in. He held her glare with one of his own, daring her to make a comment, but she gave up first. He may have one the battle, but she will win the war. After all, she had control of their menu and access to clean and stitched clothes. That seemed to work on his kids, there was no reason it wouldn’t work on him. They won’t have natto for a while, but Madara was a good kid, and Inarizushi were on tomorrow’s menu.

Once they finished, they settled back in the living room in silence, the boys to their weapons, Tajima to his reports, and her to her anatomy books. They were a pain to go through as she wasn’t used to the terms, and more importantly they were incomplete, and really vague. Sometimes there were sketches and even then, they were really approximate. But she needed to go through this rubbish. First because even if the anatomy she knew was roughly the exact same this books seemed to describe, there was an addition that changed a lot. The chakra pathways. Small vessels, like nerves, that went through the whole body to circulate chakra. After the first three books were leafed through, she had a rough idea of what they looked like and how they organized themselves both between themselves and in connection with the other organs. Anko would have to help her on that, but first she needed to learn everything these books said by heart, even if they were riddled with mistakes, and unscientific claims that were disproved in her world. After a while she got frustrated. In her last life she was a genius. She had an eidetic memory, a cheat that the other numbers of the Organization often lamented because it gave her a clear advantage in gobbling the mountains of knowledge thrown at them. She had graduated from medical school at age 23. But this body didn’t seem to have the same genetic advantages her old one had. Is this how normal people feel when they are studying? She was starting to understand why it took people twelve whole years to graduate from freaking high school.

As she was lamenting her lack of luck, an idea creped in her head. Her memory may not work automatically in this world, but who said it wasn’t as good as her last one. Activating her Sharingan she started flipping through the books and she noticed she remembered them exactly as they were. Great! She wasn’t ready to be normal. Anything but that.

After a while however she started feeling eyes on her, fixing the corner of the room she had taken for herself and never leaving. She raised her head and noticed the Uchiha males all looking at her like she had grown two heads. “What?”. Tajima cleared his throat, titling his head to the side and saying:” That is certainly an interesting use of the Sharingan”. She raised an eyebrow at him:” You’re telling me that in the centuries the clan has existed, no one thought about using it to learn the content of books faster?”. From the look on his face, she knew that she had hit where it hurt. He finally said, before going back to his report:” Of course we use it to enhance our memory when needed. It’s just that we were never big on learning from books. So I’ve never saw someone do that with the Sharingan. We mainly use it to steal the contents of scrolls without leaving evidence we were ever there.”.

Madara and Izuna were a lot more pensive. She knew that they couldn’t wait to awaken theirs. Anko had explained her how she managed to do so. The Sharingan reacted to strong emotions and was different for everybody. It reacted mostly to pain, like hers did when Mikoto died, but the same event didn’t affect everyone in the same way. Take Madara for exemple, with how protective he is of his siblings he should have had the final three tomoe form, and yet he hadn’t activated it. Same for Izuna. They were twins, and had a lot more similarities on a genetic level, and yet he too didn’t activate it when he lost his mother and elder siblings. She had a feeling that it also had something to do with the level of maturity of the person. She was an old soul and thus activated it easily, and Anko had told her that it was rare for someone to awaken the sharingan before age 10. But that was just a theory and she will have to check later. She also kind of wished that they wouldn’t have to experience something so painful that it awakened the Sharingan, but she knew it was impossible. And if it gave them one more tool for survival so be it.


	6. Senju Hashirama

Izumi kept sending small doses of chakra to her soles, to give herself the momentum needed to jump from tree brunch to tree brunch, in the cover of the night. I was an exercise she had done countless times during the past eight months, and had become like a second nature to her. Her chakra reserves were much larger now and this new way of traveling didn’t cost her too much energy. And it was always better than simply running.

Autumn and winter had come and gone, and they were now in the middle of spring. Spring in the shinobi world meant fighting. Every clan had spent months sharpening their tools, making new jutsu and simply holding their breath until the moment they could spill blood again. And she was now a part of this bloody madness. Her mind kept going back over the past few months, trying to figure out how they had gotten there.

Once her apprenticeship started, life in the house of the Uchiha clan head became a predictable routine. Waking up, making breakfast and bentos, having a meal as a family and then leaving each to their own occupation. Misuki, the widow who helped around the house came every morning to clean (properly, like Izumi had taught her), do the dishes and the occasional laundry. She was a lovely woman with one daughter, younger than Izuna and Izumi. The problem was that she wasn’t a born Uchiha, and her shinobi husband died after only a few months of their wedding, so a lot of the clan members were wary of her. Izumi learnt that letting her work in the clan head’s house, instead of the widow’s cooperative, was Mikoto’s way of showing everybody that they could trust her as she was family now.

Izumi’s mornings were spent with her brothers and their little group in the training grounds. They trained really hard every day in every aspect a shinobi ought to master. Madara and Izuna were clearly ahead of the group, but she had earned everyone respect too. As everybody already knew taijutsu, the only practice they did was a twice a week tournament to keep everybody on their toes. She was always fourth, Madara first and Hikaku and Izuna were always fighting over the second place. Kenjutsu (swords fighting) was clearly not her cup of tea. She did her best to learn, but had already decided that using those heavy swords wasn’t her thing. She preferred the freedom and mobility that throwing weapons gave her. At the end, instead of the big katana that both her brothers had hanging at their belts, she picked a simple light sword, that looked more like a knife, and called it a day. It was almost comical to see Izuna walking around with a sword almost his size, and she would have laughed if she hadn’t seen him use it with the dexterity of a seasoned samurai. He probably trained even in his dreams. Ninjutsu was another thing. It took her a while but she had finally mastered the Gokakyuu no jutsu, even if its shape still weirded out the other kids. However, she struggled with more complex Katon techniques. It was Madara who came to her help this time around. Apparently, it wasn’t written in stone that fire should be the primary affinity of all the Uchiha. He himself had a Futon primary affinity, but ignored it and worked twice as hard at Katon. And so after doing some weird paper test, they discovered that she had a Raiton affinity. The problem was that none of the teachers knew Raiton jutsus, and so they had to hunt down other shinobi, who had this same affinity, between missions and ask/beg for them to teach her. After a couple weeks she had compiled a small booklet of information on the use of Raiton. Believe it or not, that was the first written manual in the history of the Uchiha school and after she was done, it was kept in their small library along with more complex scrolls on high level jutsus. In the months that will follow, more manuals were produced by the teachers on every type of affinity, and the students started relying on them heavily, even making their own copies to take home.

Unlike Madara, she kept to her affinity, mastering three Raiton techniques so far. The first was actually something both Izuna and she had learnt from Tajima. He had shown them how to coat their weapons with chakra of their affinity, to make them deadlier. It wasn’t costly in chakra, as metal responded well to Izuna’s fire and to her lightning, but the weapons used in these techniques could not be used anymore. Izuna’s fire shuriken had a wide range and her lightning senbons were so fast they could kill you before you realized they had left her hand. The second one was trickier and required a lot more concentration. She concentrated the chakra in her finger tips and sent a continuous stream of it to form long threads of lightning that she could manipulate with her mind to use as bindings or to kill. The technique could be used as a last resort in a fight, but it still needed some work. The last one had more of a medical use. She didn’t exactly have a defibrillator in here, and so after some work, she had managed to find a way to coat her arms in a small, non-concentrated layer of Raiton chakra and use them instead. Everybody thought that she had brought a guy back from the dead when she used it for the first time, a couple of months back. And finally, they trained in genjutsu. That was Hikaku’s field of expertise. The first time he had thrown her in one of his jutsus she had thought she was drowning. This field required an innate talent, even for people who had the Sharingan, and so she preferred working on mastering how to avoid being caught in one. Her perfect chakra control had helped her a lot in stabilizing the disturbance in chakra flow that caused the illusion and so, after months of training, even Tajima’s second in command, their most eminent genjutsu specialist, struggled to keep her in it more than a minute at a time. Hikaku had looked dejected that his art could be beaten by a now six years old, but when she pointed out that he could practice making stronger genjutsus that might trap her someday, he went back to work with a new vigor.

She had her lunch with Anko before they got to work. The very first thing they had done was to work on a proper anatomy book. After Anko had helped her decipher all the gibberish written in the books they had, she had decided that it was unacceptable. So she started working on her own book. First they weeded out all the information that she knew was wrong. Second they compiled the rest into two sections: true and to be proven. The only way to get the information was to perform some proper autopsies. She had waited until Tajima had his mouthful of rice before asking him for cadavers, and watched gleefully as he and the boys choked on their food. He was skeptical at first, but when she explained why she needed them he told her that he would come up with something. She wasn’t expecting to get the body of an Uchiha as the clan wasn’t familiar with the concept of donating their body to science. And she knew that they wouldn’t be going around killing people randomly to let her study them. But the Uchiha had a bit of disdain for anyone who dared to try and fight them, and so after a week or so, after a confrontation with the Sarutobi clan, a squad brought her three bodies to study. They had stayed to watch curiously as she used the salves, she had prepared beforehand, on them to slow putrefaction. She was aware of the rumors that had started going in the clan after her weird ask, but she didn’t care. Anko had long since started saying to everybody that she was a medical genius and she knew that everybody was more curious than anything about the strange daughter of the clan head and her new quirks. She was also thankful that she hadn’t gotten the body of a Senju because, if the rumors about their freakish bodies were true, it would falsify her results. But she hoped to be able to study one in the future. Maybe she would pierce the secret of their extraordinary healing capacities.

The practice of autopsies wasn’t new in this world. But it had a bad reputation. The body of a shinobi was full of secrets like kekkai genkai for example, and so some people had gotten into the business of looting bodies to get their hands on these secrets. At first Anko had wanted nothing to do with the process, and so she had left the lab as Izumi was putting on her new leather gloves, face mask and hair cover, and started lining up the freshly made tools she had designed for the blacksmith. It wasn’t exactly a proper OR but it was something. It took her more than seventeen hours to get through the first body, but she had compiled more than a hundred pages of description and notes and sketches. She had also collected tissue samples hoping to find a way to study them later. When she was done, she was so exhausted that she just crashed in Anko’s apartment. The boys were already aware that she might not come home for a while and Misuki had volunteered to cook for them instead of just letting them survive on dry foods and eating out. She only slept for five hours before she got back to work on the second body. Even with the help of the salves she made, the bodies were starting to rot and she already knew she would have to give up on the third one. Hopefully when it snowed during the winter she could get more autopsies done. On that second day, Anko had come to help. While Izumi was still sleeping, she had taken a look at the notes she had made and finally, her scientific curiosity had won over her puritanical values and she joined in. Izumi took her time explaining what she was doing and why she needed to compare the results of multiple autopsies to correct bias and get more information. By the end of the afternoon, the old healer was the one taking the notes while she dictated.

They spent the following week working on a complete first version of an anatomy book that they presented to the clan on the first monthly assembly she had attended. They didn’t really understand the work, but everybody was aware of the value of such a book. In a world where knowledge was scarce in the field of medicine, every new addition was a treasure. And their book with the many novelties she had discovered was invaluable. That had gotten them enthusiastic promises from the young shinobi to bring more cadavers when possible to help with their research, despite some elders scowls. Clearly, the young generation had had enough of the preventable deaths and, more importantly, the Senju superiority in that field, and were willing to help anyway they could. During the winter, even when the fights where considerably less she got three other bodies: a Shimura, a Senju and a Hagoromo whose body had been discreetly brought back in the cover of the night to avoid angering their ally clan. The Shimura and the Hagoromo were quite similar to the Sarutobi and she was starting to get the general aspect of the anatomy of the humans in this world, but the Senju’s body presented some oddities, and she started wondering about how each kekkai genkai influenced the anatomy of its wielder. Clearly this was a field on its own but she had no time to dwell on the specificities. When she came across them, she would add them in what would be the third version of the anatomy book that seemed to never stop growing. She also hoped to get to study an Uchiha someday ,and the Sharingan more importantly, but she didn’t want to push her luck.

When They weren’t working on their anatomy book, they had gotten into botany and making drugs. Izumi knowledge about plants and mushrooms was extensive and Anko had nothing to be embarrassed about, especially when it came to plants that where specific to this world. They took multiple trips to the forest that surrounded the clan to gather samples, and with the help of the books that Anko had, they started the same process they did with the anatomy book and wrote several volumes on plants their specificities and their uses. It wasn’t exactly an important job as both of them already knew all that , they just did it for the future generations, so they only got to that when they had no other project going on, and the clinic was empty, which didn’t happen a lot.

They had multiple projects going on. First they started their own herb garden. Izumi had insisted that their reliance and buying what they need from the outside world or getting it from the forest was not enough, and so after multiple tantrums (she had discovered that the secret to getting Tajima to agree to anything was to loudly disturb his peace at random times of the day) they had gotten a small patch of land right outside the wall surrounding the compound, and had started a greenhouse there. She knew how to take care of plants, and after a while some of the more curious girls of the clan came to learn gardening from her. When some plants who didn’t mind the weather had started to grow and were used to make some of the medicine, the results of their hard work had started to show. Uchiha Tekka, the newest member of the elders council had even proposed to make gardener an official job in the Uchiha clan , mainly because his granddaughter was one of the most enthusiastic girls who came to learn from her. And so three girls where selected to be the official gardeners of the Uchiha greenhouse, with salaries and everything. She left most of the work to them after she was sure they wouldn’t screw up, and went back to her work at the clinic fulltime.

Their second project was making new drugs. The Uchiha relied heavily on salves and decoctions, and while she had to admit some were effective ,especially the ones brought secretly from the Senju, it wasn’t enough. After getting the blacksmiths to make some of the equipment she needed, they could start on experimenting. It took a while, but after getting used to the equipment, or lack of it actually, they were able to start working on real medication. They didn’t exactly make pills nor where they able to isolate the right molecules, but they had made some potent powders and syrups for the more common illnesses. They had to rush the process as winter was coming and people had started getting cases of the common cold and even pneumonia, but they were able to make it in time. People were hesitant at first and didn’t want to use the new weird medicine, but after they started noticing how fast and effective it was, they all looked at Izumi with weird shining eyes that gave her the creeps. The work at the greenhouse and on the drugs was doing great, but it was still in its early stages and she knew it would be years before they could become self-reliant and as advanced as she would want them to be. Still it was a good start.

The last thing they worked on, and probably the most important was diagnostic. Not to look down on her “sensei” or anything but she clearly didn’t know what she was doing, and it didn’t matter if they could make the most powerful medicines, if they were treating for the wrong illness. And so she had started teaching her the proper procedures. If anyone had walked on a five year old giving a pop quiz to her supposed sensei, they probably wouldn’t have stepped foot in their clinic ever again, but so far they had managed to keep the things discreet. People were noticing the changes in the clinic and had made the connection that it had something to do with her, but so far the explanation that was going around the clan was that Izumi had a talent for medicine and that Anko, ever the good teacher, was helping her in every way she could in honing her skills and gaining more knowledge. A shinobi who was stationed at the old Chinoki compound, turned new Uchiha base, even collected some scrolls about medicine he had found in their old infirmary and brought them back to her without being asked. That’s why she loved the Uchiha. They might be an introverted clan and not like mingling with others like the Senju, but they loved their own clan members a lot, and treated each other like a really huge family of more than a thousand members. And in a sense, they all were related to each other one way or another with how much they chose to marry within the clan. Cases like Misuki were an oddity.

She had taken to making small flash cards that had the name of the illness, its symptoms and how to treat it. She also taught Anko about stitching, even if they both agreed that using chakra healing was more effective , but they practiced it anyway to avoid any surprises or if they run out of chakra. Burns treatment was also a must. It was important when you were the doctor of a clan that liked to spit fire every now and then. They had come up with some pretty powerful anesthetics, both local and general, using mushrooms they were now growing, and some numbing creams. Open heart surgery wasn’t on the schedule, but some more simple procedures were, like fixing a burst appendix or saving the life of someone who had managed to get stabbed in the gut. And finally they got to fixing broken bones. That was an incident worth mentioning.

Somewhere during mid-autumn, the Senju and the Uchiha had gotten into a skirmish. Like usual ,when the wounded were brought back ,Anko’s clinic was swamped and this time they hadn’t had the time to get outside help and the two other medics of the clan were out on missions. Those two weren’t exactly doctors, they were just regular shinobi forced to learn under Anko when the clan had lacked doctors, but they didn’t like it, so they avoided being at the clinic whenever they could. Izumi had to help, even if she official had only started training for a month and a half. She went around taking some of the most urgent cases, and somewhere between the third and fourth patient the onlookers had stopped doubting her and let her do her job. When she finally got to Uchiha Taka, she was already tired and so she just silently put the bone sticking out of his leg back in its place, after cleaning it, and put a cast. He started protesting that he needed to go back to the battle and didn’t need the cast when she had clearly fixed his leg. Now, it was a long afternoon, and she had put up with the doubts of a lot of people until now and their unreasonable demands, so it wasn’t her fault when her Sharingan activated on its own and she put a scalpel to the neck of the man, threatening that she would gut him in his sleep if he so much as put one foot outside the bed in the next month. Thankfully, Madara was there, waiting for a small gash on his arm to be treated , and, being more used to his sister’s terrifying mood swings and not so empty threats, had helped deescalate the situation.

All in all, it was a busy but productive time and she felt great about the progress they had achieved so far. She was displeased however when in the middle of the afternoon, Tajima summoned her to the administrative building, in the middle of one of her experiments. She swallowed back her grievances when she noticed the grave and agitated ambiance in the room. Madara, Hikaku and Izuna were already there and so Tajima started:” I have decided that from now on the four of you will form a squad under the leadership of Madara. I never assigned any of you to a squad because I was already planning on forming this one in four months, but the situation has changed. The four of you have surpassed the level expected of beginners a long time ago anyway. So go and get ready, you leave in a couple of hours to go and support the shinobi up north, near the mines. The situation is almost cleared but they will need reinforcements to patrol while they rest. We are already stretched thin and you are the only team I can send without endangering our positions.”

The four of them nodded seriously. They knew it was coming. The situation was escalating quickly. What situation exactly? Well, do you remember the skirmish where Uchiha Taka had broken his leg? That wasn’t exactly a skirmish. It was a full blown war. The cause of it was their new neighbors: The Senju.

It all started right after the Chinoki extermination. Bloods were still boiling on both sides. And, so when two merchant groups with their guards, one Uchiha and one Senju, met in one of the villages near the capital, smack in the middle of the distance that separated both compounds, hell broke loose. The fight destroyed more than half of the village. This wasn’t an isolated incident, and the daimyo had had enough. So he came up with an idea. He summoned the Senju, who he had close ties with, and firmly suggested/ordered that they move to the new compound he was gifting them. That compound was conveniently in the south, right next to the Uchiha compound. There was still more than half a day’s worth of travel between them and the two territories had a river providing a clear separation, but it was still enough to make everybody on edge.

All the other important shinobi clans received the gift of new compounds from the daimyo, all conveniently located in the south. The daimyo clearly had been planning this for a while now. The message was clear: I have given you a playground where you can fight to the death as you please, but stay there and don’t come near the capital again.

That autumn, instead of things dying down like they used to, they escalated gravely and the fighting between all the new neighbors never stopped. Sometimes a squad would sense someone coming and rush to fight, only to discover that it was an ally and turn back around. Somewhere along the line, all the clan heads agreed that from now on the shinobi would wear their clan’s crest in a prominent position, instead of keeping it discreet, to avoid confusions. There was a tacit understanding that no one should try and usurp another clan’s crest, as the small advantage it would create wasn’t worth the disturbance of the delicate system they had found.

Things had started to die down in the winter. The harsh weather wasn’t having it and forced everybody to stick to their compounds. It wasn’t all bad as the reduced distance allowed the allied clans to visit each other and form stronger bonds. They had even celebrated a wedding between an Uchiha shinobi and a Hagoromo kunoichi who already knew each other but only got to romance when they became neighbors.

But when spring came, the fight started as violently as ever. There were two clear sides: The Uchiha and their allies, and the Senju and their allies. Sadly the later ones were starting to outnumber them as the Hyuga had joined their ranks. When she had gone on patrol once to learn the trade with Tajima, they had stumbled across one of their delegation preparing to cross into Senju territory. At first she had thought they were blind. They had these weird faded-purple eyes that looked plain creepy. There was no fight as the two groups just ignored each other. When they were faraway, Tajima explained to her that they were the very opposite of blind. Their eyes were a kekkei genkai, that helped them see kilometers away and through matter if they wanted to. He also advised she avoid close contact with them if she were to fight them, because she lacked the training that could counter their special brand of taijutsu.

All in all, the fights were everywhere ,and the shinobi were dispatched all over the territory when they weren’t on missions , especially when the Senju had discovered the mines the Chinoki were hiding and were trying to snatch them or at least some of their shipments. The Uchiha defended themselves and also tried to steal some the food shipments the Senju were receiving. Somewhere along the line, one of Senju Butsuma’s kids, Senju Kawarama, had died. She didn’t know what to think when Tajima had smiled sadistically, stating that finally his rival had tasted what it felt like to lose a kid too. She understood that the two clan’s couldn’t stand each other for various reasons, but what was there to be happy about in the death of a kid?

That’s how they found themselves on their way to support the shinobi protecting the mines. When they arrived the fight was already finished. The Senju reinforcements hadn’t come in time and the Uchiha had won. They had even done a round around the perimeter of the territory to make sure that none of the Senju were left. As she took care of some of their wounds with the medicine she had packed in her cross body pack, a group of five Uchiha shinobi kept snickering about how some kid with weird two toned hair had started crying when they encircled him. Their squad took the patrolling responsibility over, even if there was nothing left to do. The Senju would have probably already left with their wounded and dead. Madara decided that it was safe for each of them to cover a quarter of the ground, because they were only four and it was still a large place. They would meet back up there in three hours, and they were supposed to come get help if they spotted anything suspicious.

She was jumping from branch to branch for thirty minutes when she heard the sound of loud sobbing. She did her best to hide her presence, but kept going towards the sound, curious. She finally reached a small clearing with a rock in the middle. Right next to it where two boys that cut a sorry figure. The first one, the one who was doing the sobbing, looked around Madara’s age. A bad bowl haircut, not even hidden by his large headband with the Senju crest on it, framed what would be a handsome face if he had the chance to grow up (which was not likely with his unprofessional shinobi attitude right now). His tanned skin went great with the olive colored fitted armor he was wearing. Anko wasn’t kidding when she said that they had money to spare. In his embrace lay a younger boy, with two toned hair. The poor bastard who the other five Uchiha had encircled undoubtedly. He looked positively dead. She frowned when she took notice of his wounds. Her honorable clansmen had clearly angled them so that he would have a slow painful death instead of a quick one. She took note of their names and decided that from now on, no anesthetic for them when they came to her clinic. That would teach them about pain.

She had already decided to let them go. Enough tragedies for one night. But as she turned around to leave something caught her eye. The dead boy’s fingers twitched. It was barely there, but she clearly saw it. The one who, by all appearances was his elder brother , hadn’t noticed, too busy snoting up the place. Now, she was in a dilemma. She as an Uchiha . The clan head’s daughter too. She should be killing Senju not helping them. But he was a kid. And he probably wouldn’t make it back if treatment was delayed any longer. But if anyone knew that she helped him, she didn’t want to think about the consequences. But then he might not make it anyway, and there was no telling if his brother wouldn’t try to kill her first. Cursing internally, she scanned their surroundings to make sure no one was coming and she kept remind her self that good deeds brought on good karma; she had gotten an entire second life for one good deed after all . And then she jumped into the clearing.

To his credit, her feet hadn’t even touched the ground, when the older boy had snapped into position kunai in hand, his brother’s body carefully protected behind him. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. He eyed her with anger and wariness, eyes still wet with tears, but something told her not to underestimate him, he wasn’t as simple as he looked. And from the clear hatred in his eyes it was clear that he only needed her black hair and eyes, pale skin and blue mantle with a high collar, to guess what she was. No need for the crest in the back. Sure enough, he started emitting strong chakra waves that cracked even the ground underneath his feet. She had never even heard about something like this. Just what the hell had she walked into?

She raised her hands in the air, the universal sign for “I come in peace”, calmly looked him in the eye and said: “I’m a medic. I might be able to help your brother if you let me examine him”. His expression faltered for a bit, clearly taken aback by her proposition. But he went back to his original stance fast, and opened his mouth to speak. She cut him off before he could drag her into some meaningless dialogue and got to the point: “Look, right now, every second counts. Your brother is dying as we speak, probably already gone. You can either let me look at him or tell me to leave. And don’t even think about attacking or I will let out a scream that will both pierce your eardrums and drag the rest of my squad here. And they won’t leave behind even a body to bury. You can watch me as I examine him. Both of us will be on our guards all the time anyway.” . Her little speech had seemed to work. The boy only resisted for a second, before turning back to look at his brother, and then back at her lowering his weapon:” please”

She instantly went to kneel besides the younger kid, his brother on the other side of him. After adjusting his position, she tried to take his pulse. She had to wait for longer than she wanted to but finally, she felt a tremor on the tips of her fingers. A heartbeat. Sighing with relief, she started undoing his armor . Freaking rich kids. The older one looked at her questioningly. She answered: “ He still has a heartbeat. Barely, but it’s still there, so we have a fighting chance. I need access to his chest to try and restart it.” That was all she needed to say before fast and nimble fingers undid the top of the armor and used a kunai to cut the black shirt open. She was impressed by his reactivity, but they didn’t have time. The Defibrillator technique, as she called it in her head, only needed three signs. Hawk like eyes kept following her every movement, as a shiny white layer coated her palms and she put them on the dying boy’s chest. And then she shocked him twice. His little chest jerk violently, and from the corner of her eyes she was aware of the brother’s tightening grip on his kunai, but she paid him no mind. Taking his pulse again, she still found nothing. Third time was the charm. By the time her hand went back to his neck , his heart had already started pumping blood again , and the rhythm was slowly improving. She gave herself a little sheer: “And we have a heartbeat!”. The older boy seemed taken aback, his fingers went to his brother’s throat, and he stammered: “How is this possible? It clearly wasn’t there when I first got here ! What did you do?”. She was already getting her tools out of her bag when she answered, amused:” The Uchiha have their secrets too, you know. It’s a Raiton technique. But don’t try to so this at home kid, you might end up frying someone.” He nodded seriously at that. She stifled a laugh.

A heartbeat meant blood circulation, and in this case meant blood coming out of the kid’s body faster. She counted five wounds each administered with an intent to prolong the suffering. And to make things more difficult, it was dark and she couldn’t see well. So she did the only thing she could think of: she activated her Sharingan. There was an audible gasp next to her, and the older boy was on his guard again, but she went to work without so much as glancing at him. She started working on cleaning the wounds and taking out the shards left behind, and even had to scoop up the blood puddling in places it shouldn’t have. This clearly was no place for a surgery and the risk for infection was high, so she kept pouring alcohol and all the disinfectors she had on her on the wounds before either sewing them shut when medical chakra didn’t reach the depths of the wound, or using Anko’s technique, to stimulate the cell growth. At one point, she had to extract half of a broken kunai from his stomach. Watching the brother who was shaking with anger, she said:” Their cruelty is working for us. It means that they gave him more time. Someone less idiotic would have finished the job before leaving.” . That seemed to snap him out of it. After that, the procedure was much more straight forward and so she relaxed but continued working. Noticing the elder brother’s pensive state, she couldn’t help but saying: “So you’re that confident you can take me down, huh? You relax your stance around all your enemies like that or you’re just underestimating me?”

He looked at her all flustered and embraced:” No, no, not at all! I’m not underestimating you! It’s just that you’re not the enemy. I mean yes, you are. One of them. But you’re not! What I’m trying to say is….is ..well, you’re helping ,right? So it’s ok?” She looked up from her work and stared him down for a while, while he was visibly sweating. She enjoyed making him squirm for a while and then burst out laughing, while she continued to work.

The boy didn’t seem to get it at first .But then his head dramatically fell down, a heavy cloud of sadness on him, while he muttered under his breath. But he seemed to snap back quickly and even laugh at himself for a bit. It was sincere but clearly strained. He peered at her and softly asked:” Why are you helping us anyway?”. She thought about it for a while and finally answered: ”If he was an adult I would have walked right by. But he’s just a kid living in a world run by stupid people. He shouldn’t have to pay for it with his life. “. That seemed to take him by surprise. His eyes shone as he looked at her. But then he said:” You seem to be around his age , why do you speak like an old lady?.” She looked at him baffled and then just laughed it off:” I seem to forget that detail sometimes. I’m something of an old soul if you will.” He didn’t seem to get it, but as she finished the last stitch, she interrupted him before he could say anything else: “Why are you here anyway? I was told that all the Senju were either killed or retreated. How did they miss you?” He stared at the ground heavily:” My squad met up with the survivors on their way back. We were too late to come as reinforcement. When they told me that Itama didn’t make it, I defied orders and rushed in here to either help him or at least bring his body back home. I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving him here alone.” She understood his feelings but nonetheless: “ And instead of just picking up the body and getting the hell out, you decided to hold the funeral here?” He blushed when he realized she had witnessed his earlier breakdown, but then smiled sheepishly: “ But it all worked out right? If we had left without your help, he would already be dead now.”

Izumi sighed heavily while putting her bloodied tools back in the bag, and taking out her water container and a small folded paper that had powder in it. She mixed the powder in the water and then titled the kid named Itama’s head and made him drink all of it slowly while saying:” You got lucky. If anyone other than me had stumbled upon you, you would be dead. And to answer the question you’re going to ask: This is an immunity boosting drug that I came up with. It will help his body fight infections.” It was no antibiotic, but beggars can’t be choosers. And normally she would give the wounded other doses of it take two times a day for a week. But that was all she had on her right now. When she finished, she packed everything, getting ready to leave. Her three hours were almost up. She hadn’t done her job, and at any time someone might come here looking for her. They all needed to get out of the clearing fast. But not before she gave him the serious talk. Looking at the boy, who was looking relieved while he held his brother’s hand, she cleared her throat to get his attention back and prepared to burst his bubble:” Make no mistake; he’s not out of danger. A lot of things could still go wrong. Infections, the stitches not holding up, an internal bleeding that I might have missed… The possibilities are countless. My advice is to carry him back to your compound as quickly and as carefully as you can. Re-clean his wounds and change the bandages. Also, if you have any, give him your strongest anti-infection decoctions. If you have someone competent enough, I even suggest reopening the wounds and redoing all the work. But don’t tempt the devil if you’re not sure. He lost a lot of blood, no need to lose anymore. Which brings me to my main point: He might not make it through the night. His organs might fail at any moment so monitor him carefully for the next 24 hours. If he survives however, he will be in a lot of pain. Painkillers are allowed but don’t go crazy on them either. Give him lots of water to drink, to replenish his blood. Also no solid foods for a month. Just nourishing soups. Or his stomach sutures might rupture. Nod if you got it all.”

The poor boy was as white as sheet when she finished, but he nodded nonetheless. Relieved, she turned around to leave:” I have to go now, and so do you. They will be coming to look for me in a while.” But she remembered something else, turned around and stuck her face inches away from his:” Listen to me carefully. This never happened. Make up what you want when you go back, but never, ever , bring me up to anyone. I personally will deny it tooth and nail. And nobody will believe you anyway. Do I have your word?” Again he nodded seriously. But then he gave her a bright smile: “My name is Hashirama. I owe you a lot. What’s your name?” Was he dumb or something? She glared at him, before she turned around and started walking away: “None of your business. And I didn’t need to know that.” She took three more steps before she said without turning around: “However, if you think you owe me, just remember this: If you ever meet a boy who looks just like me in the battlefield, don’t kill him ok? He kind of has an obsession with some kid named Tobirama these days and I don’t put it past him to do something stupid.” Madara could hold his own. He has killed adult Senju before, this kid didn’t stand a chance in front of him. And with that she bolted out of the clearing and rushed back to the meeting point, in the base.

Thankfully, she made it back just as her brothers and the others were coming to get her. Questions started coming from everywhere and she chose to give them a version of the truth: “I run into some Senju . They were back for the boy with the two toned hair you left for dead in the clearing. They had a healer with them and he was able to give him emergency treatment right there. Before I realized it, I was too close and I had to stay in my hiding spot until they left, or they would have noticed me. Couldn’t even do my patrol. You guys should have finished the job swiftly instead of taking some sort of twisted pleasure. “ There , she had defected any blame and suspicion , while also earning the five bastards a scolding and maybe a demotion. Depending on Tajima’s mood. Madara was quick to hug her, and Izuna and Hikaku did the same while checking her for any injuries. Madara ever so perceptive, finally caught something and said: “Why is there blood on your sleeves?” . Shit, there was? She hadn’t noticed. But she was quick on her feet: “I must have gotten it while treating the guys earlier”. That seemed to convince him. And so they finished their mission on a good note.

Deep down, she hoped Hashirama and Itama were safe, for some reason.


	7. Dreams of peace

The last days of summer were really hot. This was Izumi’s first day off in a while. Shinobi always got a day off whenever they came back from missions, and even with her special schedule that allowed her to both go on missions, and work in the clinic, she was no exception. Except that she preferred working on her experiments instead of going out with friends like the others did. Not that she had friends to begin with. Even if she was extroverted and liked to have fun, she had the mind of a thirty-three years old woman and so, mingling with kids more than twenty-six years her juniors was not on her list of priorities. Having fun could wait until she reached the age where she could smoke and drink. This was in seven or eight years. She wouldn’t mind casting herself in the role of the rebellious teen. But so far everybody seemed to think that she just shared Madara’s introverted personality.

Madara was something else. He was like an onion. Multiple layers, that you need to peel off, only for more to come up. To his enemies, he was a cold blooded killer, a demon on the battle field, that tore through them like a mini-war god. To his allies, he was a slightly aloof heir, with great insight and diplomatic ability, a leader in the making. To his clan, he was a beacon of hope. Their future leader. He was strong, diligent and a lot more caring than Tajima. He had inherited Mikoto’s style of making small gestures to win over the hearts of his people. She had noticed that a lot of times, when the shinobi couldn’t gather the courage to ask something out of Tajima, they would go to him instead. He wasn’t sociable, the art of small talk seemed to elude him completely, and his hot temper was as famous as he was, but the Uchiha had gotten used to the quirks of Tajima’s kids by now, and they just let him be. Even at only nine years old, they held a great deal of respect for him. Even his father had started relying on him a lot more.

Only Izuna and she knew the real him. His caring personality, behind his anger fits. The awkward kid who failed to find friends his age who could keep up with his precarious mind. The dreamer in him, who came out sometimes, when it was just the three of them. His competitive nature that liked a challenge. And just how much he loved his siblings, and his clan. Everything he did, he did for them. Now that she was on his squad, she could spend a lot more time with him than earlier, and she just loved him every day a bit more.

Izuna, however, seemed to not be plagued by the same disease as his siblings. He was quite popular with the kids his age and even with the adults of the clan. He was cheerful, funny and when he wasn’t killing people, or clashing with his official nemesis Tobirama, he was just a plain six years old kid. He was cute, and the little shit knew it, and so liked to use his charm to get what he wanted from the female population of the clan . So far it was just candy or some specially made kunai, but she had a feeling that she might need to start working on birth control options in the coming years. She also met the infamous Tobirama once, when they were escorting a shipment of gold to a nearby village. He seemed to hate Izuna as much as the other boy hated him. They kept glaring at each other from a distance and she had to practically drag him out of there. Thankfully, there was no altercation as both clans respected the cease fire that was going on. And, besides Tobirama, who she knew was a year older than Izuna, all the other Senju were adults, and she doubted that their squad, no matter how skilled, could take them.

The cease fire was an idea of the Nara Clan, who had also been affected by the Daimyo’s reorganization project. Now that all the powerful shinobi clans were in the south, the fighting never seemed to stop. They kept bumping into each other and no one wanted to back down first. The situation was bad on the mental level, as stress levels were high, but more importantly bad on the economic level. Because they were either attacking or defending, nobody had the time to pick up missions or do some trading. The situation was bad as spring and summer were when shinobi had the most work and when they made most of their money. Everybody was seeing the disaster coming in the winter. And so the head of the Nara clan decided to hold a conference of the clan leaders. The Nara-Akimishi-Yamanaka axis was still neutral in term of alliances and so both the Senju and the Uchiha were willing to listen to what they had to say. There was no official meeting between the two clan heads, as everybody with mush between their ears knew that Uchiha Tajima and Senju Butsuma in the same room was equal to a disaster. But through a couple of weeks of three-way mediation, they managed to come up with something:

Both the Senju and affiliates and Uchiha and co. would cease any fighting that was done on the side. If they were to come across each other by accident, shinobi were under strict orders to ignore each other. If and when, their missions required they be on opposite sides, they should try and avoid any unnecessary deaths. For example, if the Uchiha were hired to steal a caravan guarded by the Senju, they were allowed to injure them to do their jobs, but if they couldn’t do it without killing them, they had to retreat. Clans were still allowed to try and spy on each other but if anyone was spotted on a territory where they didn’t belong, patrols were allowed to kill them. The plan for this summer was to try and salvage the losses of the spring. They even came up with special roads to avoid bumping into each other as much as they could.

So far both sides had managed to keep their ends of the deal, and things were going smoothly. Less fights, meant less injuries, and less time at the clinic .She had managed to separate her days into three categories: shinobi work days with the squad ( but they didn’t need her much and often left on missions without her.), medicine production days ( those were grueling because the clan was starting to become independent on that level, but there were still only two of them working on production) and finally research days.

Right now, after managing to find ways to create most of the medicine she needed to treat the common disease and infections, as well as stocking up on what she might need if an epidemic was to break out (they had a few cases of chicken pox last winter, but Anko spotted it early and so they were able to contain it fast), she was tackling a serious problem. She had been using her Sharingan a lot as a microscope of sorts in her research. But one day, even if her chakra reserves were still good, her eyes started hurting. She had asked Anko about what it meant, and came to know some disturbing information. The use of the Sharingan was not without consequences, the more you use it the more your eyes get tired and sometimes you can go blind. It was a slow process and it took decades of use for the vision to seriously deteriorate, but it was inevitable. After that she had gone around asking shinobi about their vision, gathering information, examining the eyes of the people who let her, and making some charts to track the progress of the deterioration, depending on gender, frequency of use and age. She came to the conclusion that she had a good forty years before it became a problem for her, but as she was planning on living for longer than that, she had to start looking for a treatment. And also, a lot of people were suffering from deteriorating vision and this will benefit them too. Her motives were not entirely selfish.

But to be able to do something, she needed to know more about the Sharingan. She needed to study it. The monthly Uchiha assembly was a good time to bring it up. It was held in the compound’s shrine. The shrine was just a huge room really, lighted by big torches at night, when the meetings were held. It could house about five hundred people at a time, and most of them sat on the ground or on cushions they found (those went fast; first come, first served).In the back of the room facing the huge double doors, was a small stage. Tajima and the elder council took place there, and the people with complaints or matters to bring to the clan’s attention went up and spoke facing the crowd. When she spoke up about the problem she was facing, a lot of people were interested. It was a problem that concerned them all. Even the elders who didn’t usually like her interventions were attentive this time. The problem was that no one was willing to let the body of a loved one go through an autopsy before being buried. They didn’t mind when it was the body of an outsider, but clan members were a taboo. And even if they were willing there were no recent deaths in the clan anyway. It was starting to go nowhere when help came from an unexpected source: Elder Hizashi. She and that old bag of bones didn’t like each other. He was the most traditionalist of the Uchiha, and her ideas about medicine, the involvement of kunoichi in the clan’s leadership and even the creation of the greenhouse were the complete opposite of his. He thought it disgraceful that the members, of a warrior clan as great as them, would lower themselves to become gardeners, or basically anything other than shinobi. She liked to argue with him a lot, and forgetting that she was only supposed to be six and a half years old , no matter how prodigious, she tended to get insolent with him. Usually, that’s when Tajima stared her down and took the matters into his own hands. But behind her, some of the clan members gave her discreet sheers. Even Madara smirked. Anko was over the moon.

Nonetheless this time, he was surprisingly helpful. Maybe it had something to do with his almost blindness. He told the clan that sometimes, some dojutsu thieves got their hands on the Sharingan. Standard procedure was to hunt them down, kill them and take back the stolen eyes. They were always successful so far, but sometimes they took too long, and the thieves already had the opportunity to make some research. The results were always brought back to the clan and the elders kept them, in order to study the Sharingan someday, but that never happened so far. He had three of those scrolls and he promised to deliver them to her later, as well as some reading material on the clan’s old legends concerning the Sharingan. It wasn’t what she wanted, but she could do with it, and so she thanked him, while trying not to get angry at his self-satisfied smirk.

He had delivered them personally the very next day, when he came to pick up his stomach burns medicine. And so she had been studying them carefully for more than a week now. They were surprisingly helpful and clearly detailed, but she still had a long way to go to even start formulating theories. The legends were, however, something else. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but it wasn’t exactly that. They didn’t talk much about the Sharingan, but they spoke about something called the Mangekyou Sharingan. It was supposed to be the ultimate form of the Sharingan, even better than the three tomoe form. The scrolls spoke about some magical powers that were unbelievable even in the unbelievable world she had been living in for nearly a year day to day now. The general idea was that the Mangekyou Sharingan was the mirror of the soul, and that its powers took the form of the wielders deepest desires. It was also supposed to be able to read the Uchiha stone monument. That was a big rock with a lot of inscriptions on it, currently on the stage in shrine, that was supposed to hold all the secrets of the Uchiha clan, but no one was actually able to read it. She put the scrolls away, as their content was not her current problem and she was multi-tasking enough as is. But she didn’t forget to ask Tajima about it later, and he told her that some of their ancestors were supposed to have awakened it. But, to him, it was as much a legend as the Senju’s Mokuton.

When she came to the clinic that day, Anko gently but firmly kicked her out. She had been working nonstop for months now, and even she needed a break. Her work would still be there the next day. The summer was coming to an end, and soon the good weather was going to leave. Anko ordered her to go and find something else to do. And so she started wandering in the streets of the compound. She didn’t feel like hanging out with Izuna, as he and his minions were starting to understand the differences between genders, or at least imitate adults that did, and so were a pain to be around. Hikaku was on a fishing expedition with his father. And Madara was nowhere to be found. This summer he had taken to training alone in the forest, and started to disappear in there whenever he had time off, often from sun rise to sun down. The time alone seemed to make him happy and whenever he came back he had a small smile hanging from his lips. She had asked him why he was so happy, but he just said that he liked to have time to think on his own. She tried to tease him by implying that he was meeting a girl there, but even she knew how ridiculous that sounded. It was still too early to tell, but he had all the signs of a guy who was the opposite of a ladies man. Plus, sometimes he would come up with some new jutsu while training and he was generally progressing at a hallucinating speed. Izuna had begged him to let him come with him sometime for these special training sessions, but he firmly refused. She even had to scold her twin, telling him that Madara always gave in to his demands; he just wanted some free time to himself. Only then did Izuna agree to begrudgingly drop the subject.

She was halfway back home, when an irritating voice came up from behind her:” Uchiha Izumi, you stop right there!”. She didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Uchiha Yuki, pointing an accusing finger at her. Yuki was a cute seven years old girl, and the second best kunoichi of their generation. She usually came in fifth in the taijutsu competitions they held, which spoke of her seriousness compared to the other girls, who were still not even allowed to go on patrol missions (And were clearly not planning to go that far). But she also seemed to have inherited the Uchiha’s competitive streak. Izumi was kind of Yuki’s self-appointed Tobirama. Even if she clearly didn’t mind her, it only angered the girl more and pushed her to challenge Izumi whenever she could. But whenever Izumi humored her, she was never able to win even once. At least she never gave up.

Izumi sighed. She might as well fight Yuki to train a bit, or she will die of boredom. She wasn’t used to being idle. Turning around, with a carefully calculated smirk, she said:” So you came to have your butt kicked once again. Why don’t you save yourself the shame and just drop it?” . If Yuki wasn’t angry before, that ought to do it. Sure enough, a vain throbbed in her head and she screamed:” You, me , training ground 4, now! I have been practicing a new jutsu for a month now. You won’t be able to avoid it!” And then she stomped away under the amused smiles of the passersby and Izumi.

They fought for the rest of the morning, and then some more on the afternoon, after lunch. When they both were finally exhausted and out of chakra, they just ley on the ground side by side, breathing heavily. When she finally caught her breath, Izumi asked:” Why do you insist on fighting me anyway?”. Yuki just shrugged:” Because you are the best. And someday, I want to be the best too. That way my dad will be as proud of me as he is of my brothers!”. Izumi stared at the blue sky: “So it’s because of your daddy issues. I see. And here I thought you had a crush on me or something.”.

Yuki’s little face went red with both anger and embarrassment as she sat up:” What?? Who the hell would have a crush on you?? Have you seen yourself in the mirror? Sure, you and Izuna have inherited Mikoto-sama’s good looks, but you look too soft. Too effeminate. Nothing like Madara-sama!” she stopped herself when she realized she might have said too much. Izumi raised an eyebrow clearly amused by the turn of events. Yuki’s small face went even redder and she slammed face first into the ground trying to bury her head like an ostrich:” You’re the doctor, tell me, can someone die of embarrassment?” Izumi finally allowed herself to burst out laughing:” No, I don’t think so. And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Although I should let you know something about Madara-ni.”. Yuki peered at her, clearly interested, so she continued:” Madara only cares about fighting and his duties. I’m almost sure that he will never get around to crushes and romance. The good news, however, is that, as his closest living female relative, I will have a say in his marriage in the future. So if you stay on my good side, I might slip in a good word for you.” Yuki looked at her outraged for a while; and then burst out laughing and went back to staring at the sky:” You are too much!”. Izumi just laughed at that. They stayed in the training ground for a few more hours, just talking and laughing and teasing each other. When Izumi made her way back home that day, she felt like she might just have made her very first friend. A weird one, but normal is boring anyway.

She was the first one back. Madara would still be in the forest for a while. Tajima was working, and she didn’t even want to think about what Izuna was doing. He had a strangely determined look on his face that morning, and she had a feeling that he was up to no good. She cooked diner, put it on the table, and started reading some of her notes while waiting for the others to comeback. Family dinners were sacred in the Uchiha clan, the other meals didn’t matter, but dinner was when everybody got together. She had to wait for longer than she expected though and the food was already cold when they were back home. The father and sons had all comeback together. She sensed that something was wrong when she only received halfhearted greetings before they all went to their rooms to freshen up. Usually there was a bigger ruckus. Even Izuna was oddly calm. She reheated everything, while they changed. When everyone started eating, the strange atmosphere in the room could not be denied. Madara was glaring holes at the table, Tajima acted disinterested but he clearly had on the look he wore when he was about to pull one on Senju Butsuma, and Izuna was acting cagey. Izuna idolized his elder brother. He liked to get his attention at all times. But today he was making himself as small as possible, trying his best to stay out of Madara’s side of the table. She decided to break the silence:” Anybody want to fill me in on what’s going on?”. But nobody answered her. Madara ‘s grip on his chopsticks finally broke them, and Izuna flinched harder than he should have. Tajima finally answered her:” It’s nothing. Tomorrow the three of us are going on an important mission, that’s all. It’s a secret however, so drop it. And, no, you can’t come.”

They finished their meal in silence, and for the first time in a while she didn’t ask for their help clearing the table and for doing the dishes. Izuna and Tajima retreated to their rooms early, while Madara stayed on the garden porch gazing at the moon, trying to get him to answer his questions. She gathered her needle work and went to sit beside him. They just sat there silently for a while before she interrupted the silence again: “Do I even want to know?”. His answer was brief: “Probably not”. He stayed silent for a while and then continued:” If….If you ever had to betray a friend, for the good of the clan, would you do it?”. She wasn’t expecting that. She looked at his profile, surprised: “That’s a surprisingly loaded question.” He didn’t look at her yet, and so she went back to her work: “All I know is that you’re not really a social butterfly. This is the first time I hear you call someone your friend. Clan members, teammates, brother, you have all those. But for someone to earn the title of “Uchiha Madara’s friend”, they must be quite the character. So just think about this: is what you are getting out of this betrayal worth the loss?”. By time she finished, they were staring at each other. She knew that she was kind of telling him not to do it, but the decision was his ultimately. Suddenly, he smiled, picked up the scissors out of her tool box and used the edge to write something on a small flat stone he got out of his yukata. When he finished and looked at his handy-work, he said: “Thanks, I just needed someone to confirm out loud that I was doing the right thing. Goodnight.” And with that he moved to go back into his room. She stopped him: “One more thing. Do I need to give Izuna a beating?” .That got her a laugh: “Nah. I will just give him the silent treatment for a while, that will teach him. “

The next day, they left before the sun was up. She spent her day in the clinic, replenishing her stocks, too worried to do anything that required something other than mindless repetition. She left early, and came back home to wait for her brothers. When dinner was done, and she had nothing left to do, she started pacing around. They came back earlier than usual. Obviously whatever had happened didn’t take long. When they came into the living room, she noticed that there were only two of them. Tajima wasn’t there. What was more shocking was that she was met with red eyes, which had one tomoe in them. Madara had awakened his Sharingan. She had a bad feeling in her stomach: “Where is dad?”. Madara just shrugged before going to his room: “In his office. He skipped today’s work to come with us. Needs to catch up. Probably won’t be back this evening. No dinner for me tonight.” And with that he went to his room. Izuna had also quietly slipped into the room they shared. She followed him there, Sharingan ablaze. He was taking of his top armor, one Madara had gotten him with his own money, when she interrupted him. He looked startled and a bit scared when she faced him with her Sharingan, but she didn’t care:” Start talking! Now!”

He clearly had wanted to confide in someone for a while now, as this was all the encouragement he needed to start spilling the tea. Apparently the little brat hadn’t listened to her, and decided to follow Madara secretly when he went to train in the forest. That’s when he discovered what was really happening. Madara wasn’t training alone; he was meeting with a friend. A friend that just happened to be Senju freaking Hashirama. It had started in mid-spring (probably after her meeting with him) and lasted all summer. Fate had had it that these too had actually never met in the battle field before. Funnily enough, both were the sons of the clan heads and also their heirs. An unlikely friendship started and, even if they both had their suspicions about the others last name, they started hanging out regularly. When Izuna had followed him, he saw them training together and talking about god only knows what. He had stuck around to spy on them, too curious to leave. He was enraged that his prefect older-brother would actually befriend someone who was clearly a Senju, and was preparing to confront them when he noticed something. A chakra signature that he knew by heart now. He stayed hidden and searched around for a while but he found him eventually without being spotted first. Senju Tobirama, Hashirama’s younger brother and his nemesis. The Senju was also clearly spying on his brother, but made no sign of intent on confronting them like Izuna. For once in his life, Izuna didn’t rush into things and actually went to tell Tajima about what he saw. They both accosted Madara when he came back yesterday and confronted him. He finally admitted to everything. If it was any other clan member Tajima would have branded them a traitor, but he knew his eldest well enough to get that it really was an innocent friendship. But he saw there an opportunity to spy on the Senju, and so ordered Madara to try and get information from his friend, and to kill him if he failed, cease fire be damned. They went with him as back up, because Tajima knew his rival well enough to know that Tobirama being there was no accident. And sure enough, Senju Butsuma and Tobirama were there too ready to do the same thing Tajima and Izuna were planning. But the surprise came from both Madara and Hashirama. They both had the idea to warn the other using skipping stones and hoped to leave it at that, but they ended in a three-way dead lock anyway. Madara, trying to deescalate the situation, told his father that he couldn’t beat Hashirama and that it was better to retreat. He decided that their friendship ended there, and even Hashirama’s pleas weren’t enough to shake his resolution. It was the pain of ending their friendship that awakened Madara’s Sharingan. When they were back in the compound Tajima just congratulated Madara and ordered them never to bring this up again.

When Izuna finished his story, they were both sitting side by side, backs to the wall facing the sliding screen door that led to the garden. They just sat there in silence digesting the happenings of the day. Finally she said: “I want to kick you for spying on him and for snitching to dad. But you saved his life by doing so. If the two of you weren’t there, who knows if ni-san could have gotten out of there fast enough.” . Izuna winced at her words, but then said: ” Yeah, those Senju bastards where waiting to ambush him. Nii-san was too naïve on this one.”. She gave him a blank look: “I know that you are not dumb enough to be oblivious to the fact that you wanted to do the exact same thing to Senju Hashirama.”. If she had slapped him instead of saying that, she would have gotten the same results. He stammered: “But that’s not the same thing! They are the Senju! They killed so many Uchiha. Even the kids. They killed three of our brothers.” She just got up and said:” I’m not saying that they didn’t. I’m saying that we do the exact same thing too. Nobody knows why, how it started or even when. We just do horrible things to each other and call the others monsters to justify our actions and make ourselves feel better. I mean, do you even know why you hate Senju Tobirama? My guess is that you just do because dad pointed at him once and told to go fight with him.”. Izuna’s brain seemed frozen by this point. She opened the door to the living room and said before leaving:” And before you say that Madara-ni is naïve, remember that Senju Hashirama also tried to warn his Uchiha friend. Maybe his trust was deserved”

Once in the living room, she picked up a plate. She was happy that she thought about making Inarizushi today. Madara was going to need all the comfort food he could get. She filled the plate, made her way to his room and entered without asking for permission. She knew that Madara was like “One”. He was the type of person who refused to let people in when they actually needed them the most. She had to force him to talk to her, or who knows what dark places his mind would go to. He was lying on the ground facing the ceiling, Sharingan still active. She put the plate down and joined him in his position. She started:” Do you know how to deactivate it or do you want me to show you?”

He just continued to stare at the ceiling, not tempted by the food, and said:” No, thanks. I’m good. I’m just getting used to it.”. So he wasn’t opposed to talking. That was a good start. “Izuna told me what happened. All of it.”. He answered evenly: “He wasn’t supposed to.”. They fell into silence once again. Madara’s hand crept to the plate between them and he picked up some of its content and started munching on it. This didn’t feel like the right time to point out that he might choke on his food in his position. She knew CPR anyway. So she started again:” I’m not going to ask if you’re alright because you clearly aren’t. What I want to know is what you plan on doing next.” .

”About what?” he asked. Frankly she didn’t know too:” About everything. About your friendship. About what to do when you face him in the battlefield. Now that both your fathers know about the others skill level, you don’t need to be a genius to figure out that they are going to pair you up in every fight until there is a clear winner.” Madara sat up and so did she. He looked at her, trying to feign indifference and said:” Nothing. He’s a Senju, and I’m an Uchiha. We are destined to fight each other as heirs and as clan heads in the future. It was good while it lasted, but from now, he’s just another enemy. That’s what my Sharingan means.”

Bullshit. If she knew one thing, is that destiny is not written in advance. Or she would still be a shadow that fed on the blood of innocents to satisfy greedy politicians. But she had no way to explain that to him now. And so she chose a different angle:” What were you talking about with Senju freaking Hashirama anyway. I’ve only met him once but I can’t imagine the two of having anything in common.” _Hook._

His breath hitched in his throat:” You met Hashirama? When? How?” . She gave him a pointed look:” You are not the only one in the business of keeping secrets you know. I will tell you mine if you tell me yours.” _Line._

He scrutinized her for a while trying to see if it was worth it but finally curiosity got the better of him:” Ok, but you start.” _Sinker._

She gave a devious smile and said:” Well, do you remember our first official mission as a team? When I said I met some Senju who were giving emergency treatment to some kid and I had to wait until they left, to go back. That wasn’t exactly true. There was only one Senju other than the wounded. It was Hashirama. And the medic who treated his brother was me. Long story short, I came across him while he was weeping, thinking that his brother was dead, and I decided to lend a helping hand. The blood that you noticed on my sleeve that day was from the surgeries I performed on him.”

Madara’s mouth was gaping: “You did what ? Why? You knew that they were Senju. I know that I did too, but there was still reasonable doubt in my case.” She just gave him a dry look: “I will tell you the same thing I told Hashirama when he asked: he’s just a kid living in a world run by stupid adults. He shouldn’t have to pay for it with his life.” .

Madara was taken aback by her answer. He stared as his lap before answering: “We talked about just that. Kids dying in a world run by stupid people. We talked about peace and dreamed about how to achieve it.”. Damn. Where she came from, not a lot of nine years old kids thought about peace unless it involved some stupid essay they had to do for English class. She was curious: “And did you come up with something?” . He seemed to be lost in thought, maybe not even aware that he as answering her, but a hint of a nostalgic smile on his lips: “ We said we would build a village. A safe place where kids could train before being sent on missions, according to their level. There, we could protect our siblings and all the people we cared about. Can you imagine that, the Senju and the Uchiha living together? How idiotic is that?”

She only needed to think about it for a second before she answered: “Actually yes, I can see it. It won’t be simple and a lot of change needs to happen before we can even begin to bring it up, but it’s not impossible. After all, the lion and the tiger are different, and they probably don’t like each other very much, but they still share the savannah.”. Madara was clearly interested in what she had to say and so he asked: “So do you believe in peace? That we can live in a world with no fighting?”.

That was a more complicated question. She had lived in a world where peace was present in most of the globe. But as someone who had lived in the shadows all her life, she knew that it was only a mirror, a beautiful packaging that hid a rotten inside. A lot of the fighting was done under wraps, by people like her, while politicians smiled and shook hands. But it was still better than the rampant killing that was going on in here. Sure, the Organization had deviated from its original purpose, and that’s why she ended it, but for the first fifteen years or so after the start of her career, she had been proud in the work they were doing so that others could leave in peace.

And so her answer reflected her experience: “ I believe that violence and peace are like light and darkness. In order for one to exist the other needs to be there too. And so even if I don’t think that a world with no fighting is possible, I think that we can make something close to that can happen. Humans are like bacteria, constantly looking for an environment where they can proliferate. That environment for humans is one that has peace in it. They will realize that soon enough and come up with ways to make it happen. What is left to be determined is on which terms it will happen. If our parents have anything to say about it, they will tell you that the other party needs to be exterminated. But building your future on a bloody graveyard full of innocents is no way to make peace happen. The better solution is the one you and Hashirama came up with. Working together, towards a shared goal. It won’t be perfect, and human nature will make sure that a part of darkness comes up to dim that light. We probably won’t live to see that dream take the shape we want it to, but slowly generation after generation the light will burn brighter, and the darkness will slowly start disappearing until it’s only a small dot.”

Madara thought about it for a while, but then he said: “Working together means trusting each other. But how can you do that? How can you know what the other party is thinking? Alliances can clearly go up in smokes in a matter of minutes, especially when greed and jealousy are involved.” . Izumi knew what he meant. The Chinoki incident. They had trusted them not once but twice, and the price they paid for that was Mikoto’s life. And those were their allies for decades . Imagine what could happen if they put their trust in the Senju who were their enemies for centuries. She eventually said: “I have no idea. Unless we steal the Yamanak’s jutsus, the human mind will forever be out of our reach. The best we can do, I guess, is open dialogue. Clearly stating our grievances and positions, and taking into consideration the other party’s too. But to do that you need to be sure that you are talking to a person who shares those same believes. And that’s where trust comes in. Either you have it or you don’t.”

They fell into silence after that. She knew that he was probably wondering if Hashirama was worth his trust. But it was too early to tell. They were only kids , with dreams and hopes, fresh to the world and still not jaded by its harshness. The odds where, that by the time they became adults, they would become as cynical and bitter as Uchiha Tajima and Senju Butsuma. Those two had probably held the same dreams a couple decades earlier. And so she decided to tell him: “ Look, you don’t need to think about it too hard this evening. You have time ahead of you. For now, I think that it’s good that you ended that star-crossed lovers thing you had going on with Hashirama. It was a good experience, and you got to see what it was like to get to know someone from the other side without prior bias. Maybe it’s a sign of fate that you two are destined to do great things. But for now, you need to work on yourself. You need to become stronger and hone your skills, while keeping your values. Because unless you become the leader of the Uchiha, your dreams will remain just that: dreams. And after you become our leader, you will be responsible for all the lives in the clan. It’s the harsh reality. So you will need to be careful, because your decisions will affect us all. It’s ok if you still see Hashirama as your friend. But always remember that he is also the future head of the Senju clan. Only if your shared feelings can survive the avalanche of violence that is coming towards them, will the two of you be able to someday create that village.” 

That was all she wanted to say to him. She had been through this once. The Organization had been “Command” ‘s dream, for peace maintaining purposes. But she had watched as he naïvely followed them until he had lost control over it and became jaded by the world. She didn’t want that to happen to Madara. It’s better to be like Tajima , and to stop dreaming when it’s too much, than to be like Command, and not be strong enough or able to see far enough to guide your dream in the right direction.

They sat in silence while munching on Inarizushi. She wondered if Izuna had eaten. She needed to go check on him. The poor boy was only six and they had left him alone for hours to stew on something that wasn’t exactly his fault. So getting up she said: “ And please give Izuna a break ,ok? Maybe train with him or something tomorrow. He has been through enough already. I already talked to him and scolded him.”

Madara gave a genuine laugh this time: “You seem to be doing a lot of talking tonight. But don’t worry I was planning on it anyway. You know something, ever since you got hit on the head, you seem to have gotten a lot smarter and wiser. That sure did you some good.” She stuck out her tongue, but laughed too: “ Yeah, I’m something of an old soul now.”

He laughed but then seriously said: “ Thank you. You gave me a lot to think about. It’s nice to know that my dreams aren’t that ridiculous. I was starting to give up completely, but now I think that I don’t have to. It’s not a bad idea, just bad timing.”

She nodded at him, and then went to comfort Izuna, who was still sulking in his room. Maybe she could whip out some Onigiri real quick. It had worked on Madara after all.


	8. In the woods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! Thanks for reading again! So, today's chapter is smaller. It's kind of the end of part one of the story. Part 2 will be about how they achieve their dream. I still haven't figured out all the details, and I am hesitating on writing it in a way that leaves the door open for a third part where they face Black Zetsu and even Kaguya. Decisions, decisions. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think. I love hearing about your opinions on Izumi and the other characters. Anyway, enjoy!

Research on the Sharingan wasn’t going great.

Izumi had spent the two weeks following the “Hashirama and Madara incident” working in her lab, trying to make sense of the scrolls elder Hizashi had giving her. She had the time because even if missions kept coming, their squad was benched. Tajima didn’t make a show of it, but he was clearly punishing Madara by putting them on patrol duty for an indefinite period. Patrol was the most boring thing to do for a shinobi. You had to keep going around the territory’s perimeter, in silence while keeping your senses alert because if anything got past you, the consequences were unfathomable. But most of the time, nothing happens, and you just spend your time walking around. Madara hated it with a passion. He liked action and fighting, anything but patrol. And Tajima knew it. Izuna, Hikaku and Izumi were just collateral damage. The first two anyway, as she had pretexted being busy at the clinic and was allowed to bail on them if she could find someone to cover for her. Her newest friend, Yuki was more than happy to oblige. She was newly promoted and had yet to be assigned to a squad, and so she became a spare in their team. It was also kind of funny seeing her get all red every time Madara praised her. He was always one to appreciate a skilled fighter, but seemed totally oblivious to her small crush on him. Hikaku and Izuna were not, and enjoyed taking advantage of the situation to have some entertainment during their long shifts.

The scrolls were helpful. One of them was clearly the work of someone trying to come up with a way to create an artificial Sharingan. Clearly a genius of some sorts. She wished she could have explained to him the principles of genetics and human reproduction, because his work was heading nowhere, but the poor bastard was already dead. His scroll was the most helpful as it contained sketches of what he had observed, and the results of some of the molecular testing he had done. Some of the stuff he described couldn’t be seen with the naked eye and so she wondered if he had access to a microscope of sorts. One thing she came to know was that, in this world, the levels of technological advancements were random and depended on the specificities of the country. If someone had the possibility to go around each country and gather the stuff they came up with, she was sure that they would have a decent modern day lab. But this was the shinobi world, and sightseeing wasn’t exactly an option.

The most intriguing part was the description he gave of the optical nerve. Apparently if had some black dots on it. After going back to check the other scrolls, she found some mentions of this same phenomenon, and so she came up with some theories: Since the Sharingan required a constant supply of chakra, the black spots probably had something to do with that. If she was correct then it could mean one of two things. First, the chakra flow was slowly burning the cells of the optical nerve, because it wasn’t made for such large quantities. Or, second, the heavy chakra flow was probably stimulating the creation of something that was clogging the nerve. And that was all she came up with in two weeks’ worth of work. Now she was stuck. She had no way of knowing if these black dots came up post extraction, if they had anything to do with the blindness, or if any of her theories actually made sense.

Izumi was trying to get the frustration out of her mind by practicing chakra healing with Anko. Each one was seated in one of the island counters of the lab, with a fish in front of her. Izumi had found a way to use chakra to heal internal damage, but it was still at its early stages, and so far both of them just practiced trying to heal the internal scars on the lung tissue of the fish. It worked about half the time. And today it clearly wasn’t working for her. In her anger, she kept losing control of the chakra she was emitting and was hurting more than she was helping. Finally she was done with it all, and so she let a heavy dose of chakra come out of her hand, and just cooked the fish right there. Her hands gripped the edge of the counter, and she sighed heavily.

Anko didn’t look up from her work, just glanced at her from the corner of her eyes and said: “You are too impatient. You got used to the fast pace we were making progress at in the beginning. You forgot that it was just because we started from next to nothing. We were just getting things up to standard as you used to say. But now we are doing actual, new research. And that takes time. Don’t try to rush it.” . Izumi, just sighed and said: “ You are right. I need to cool down a little bit. I will just go into the forest to look for some new herbs we can use. The girls at the greenhouse are doing an amazing job, and our stocks are even ready for the winter. Let’s give them something new to work on.”. Anko just nodded, agreeing to her plan.

But then Izumi noticed something. She had actually forgotten to interrupt the chakra flow in her hands, and when she looked at the counter, it was cracked all the way to the ground. While stopping the chakra, she exclaimed: “ What the hell?”. Anko, came to look, and after she explained what had happened, they both just stood there looking at her handiwork. Suddenly an image came to her mind. That night in the forest, when Hashirama was still weary of her, he had sent waves of chakra that cracked the ground underneath him. So non-transformed chakra can also affect the environment? And anybody can do that? Well not anybody, he clearly wasn’t even trying at the time. It was more of a side effect to his huge release of chakra. But if she could work out how to use it on purpose, she might have a new ace up her sleeve. She just told Anko to let it slide for now, promised to ask the carpenter to come take a look, and left with her wicker basket to go into the woods.

At first, she was looking seriously for the plants, but she dropped it after she realized that she couldn’t get the image of the cracked counter out of her mind. She had clearly found something, and wasn’t willing to let it go. Her lack of results in the other department was getting to her. She needed a win to boost her moral. Bad. And so she decided to set the plant searching aside, and focus on the new jutsu. The only thing she knew so far was that it had something to do with releasing chakra that hadn’t undergone any of the five basic transformations. She tried to realease some out of her palm but it didn’t come out in form of a strong shock wave like Hashirama’s. it was more like a puff of blue smoke that dissipated into the air. So maybe that part wasn’t for mere mortals like her.

She tried another approach. The cracks had appeared right were her hands had clutched the counter, so maybe chakra didn’t react well to matter. She picked a large tree bark and tried to infuse a continuous stream of chakra into it. At first she tried to send waves of chakra of various intensities but the result was the opposite of what she was looking for. Small concentrations stimulated the regeneration, while highly concentrated chakra burnt the wood a bit. Clearly, the principles of medical ninjutsu didn’t apply here. Just when she was starting to get frustrated again, her fingers tightened around the tree bark and it actually cracked. She was dumbfounded for a while but then it hit her. Could it be? She went to the nearest tree, gathered a huge amount of chakra into her fist but didn’t let it get out until she punched as hard as she could. She watched mouth wide open as the tree cracked from the place she made contact and then actually broke into two parts and fell on the ground with a loud bang. The non-transformed chakra was no longer just fading into the air , it was actually enhancing the strength of her hits like a hundred times more than it should be. And after doing a quick scan of her body, she discovered that she didn’t lose much chakra as most of it had never left her balled fist to begin with. She could throw a lot more of these punches before she felt a significant difference.

The key was to only release, a small quantity of highly condensed chakra, at the moment of the impact, not before, not after. The counter and the tree bark had only cracked when she had added the pressure caused by her fingers to the concentrated chakra layer covering her palm. This was the perfect technique for someone like her, who struggled with ninjutsu due to her small chakra reserves. It was one of her sore points, because even if she had perfect control over her chakra and that her reserves were slowly growing, regular ninjutsu techniques still required big quantities of chakra, and she was out of it after no more than three jutsus at a time. Madara and Izuna didn’t seem to have that problem, because they had inherited the Uchiha’s strong chakra and used it with ease. Maybe the fact that her soul wasn’t really an Uchiha’s soul had something to do with it.

Izumi repeated the process a couple of times on trees, and then on some rocks. She even tried to use kicks instead of punches and it still worked. If she practiced this more, maybe she would stop being a hindrance to her squad. Madara, Izuna and Hikaku were all monsters, and even if they knew that she could hold her own in a taijutsu battle and with weapons, her lack of skill in ninjutsu and genjutsu made them feel responsible for her and quite overprotective. They always told her that her role as a medic was invaluable and that clearly Tajima thought that she had what it takes to be a great kunoichi, but she was used to being one of the best and she didn’t like her current status as the runt of the group.

Satisfied with her discovery, she gathered her basket, and happily skipped out of the ruins she had created. She started looking for herbs and didn’t notice until she was nearing the river that separated them from the Senju territories. She kind of was curious to see where Madara and Hashirama had been having their affair, and slowly made her way to the place Izuna had described. It was a beautiful creak; with many small grey rocks bordering both sides of the river. They contrasted beautifully with the fallen leaves of early autumn.

As soon as she stepped in, she noticed that someone else was there. A boy with silky brown hair cut in a hideous bowl cut, which was only rivaled in its bad taste by his sense of fashion. He had on a dark kimono shirt, a short light green jacket with darker green linings, a white scarf around his neck, traditional pinstriped kimono pants, and a dark green sash around his waist. She knew that this wasn’t his fault per say, as this was the casual attire of all Senju, both men and women. The Uchiha’s casual clothing’s material may not be as fancy, but they won with a large margin when it came to good taste. And just wait until she gets more influence in the clan. Her first order of business will be to make the seamstresses get to work. She’s far too busy to keep designing and embroidering her yukatas like now. It might not be too far in the future, as some of the younger girls of the clan had started to imitate her style.

Back to reality. She had recognized the boy the moment she saw him, even without his armor, head band, and snot and tears. Senju Hashirama. He too, had noticed her presence instantly, his head snapping happily to where she was, before his face filled with disappointment. He was clearly waiting for someone else. She had her idea on who it was.

She thought it was better to leave it at that, and was planning on retracing her footsteps as fast as she could, but he had other plans. After scrutinizing her for a while, he seemed to recognize her. He gave her a grin as bright as the sun, bolted into the water surface, and used the walking-on-water technique to run towards her side of the river. He started talking almost instantaneously: “I recognize you!! You’re that healer from the other night! I was expecting someone else, but I’m so happy to see you too. I never got to properly thank you for saving my brother’s life.”. And then he took a step back and gave her a 90 degrees bow saying: “Thank you, so much! I can never pay you back enough for your help! Please, if there is anything that I can do, don’t hesitate.”

She was a bit left behind by the speed of the events, but finally managed to say: “ You’re welcome? There is no need to bow really. I helped because I felt like it. Wasn’t expecting anything in return.”. He finally straightened back, and gave her a smile: “You’re weird!”

Let’s get one thing straight. She had been called weird a lot of times, during both of her lives by various people. She brushed it off on account of people not understanding her genius. But coming from a screw loose like the one she had in front of her, that was pushing it a little bit. She angrily retorted: “ You are one to talk, you over-exited idiot!”.

Like if his earlier attitude wasn’t eccentric enough, the guy actually fell dramatically to the ground, hugged his knees, a heavy cloud of sadness hovering all over him. He looked like she had just announced that she was going to put down his puppy. He started, with a tearful voice: “ I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry I upset you. I just meant that you were different for the doctors I am used too.”. She didn’t know what to do with his roller coaster of a mood. But she kind of snapped at him, when he had been extremely polite to her all the time, and she thought it would be better to just brush it off: “It’s nothing. No need to mope around like that. We were just talking. You’re going to make me feel bad if you keep it up. You’re such a cry baby” She was about to put a comforting hand on his shoulders when he peered at her with a slightly mocking smile: “ And you, are just as gullible as Madara.”. What? She didn’t realize what was going on until he was back on his feet laughing merrily.

Refusing to admit that a brat like him could play her, a thirty-three years old assassin, with over two decades of experience, she turned around preparing to leave but not before stomping heavily on his foot to stop his laughing. He howled in pain , and she almost got away when a hand grabbed her elbow: “ Wait, I’m sorry. Please don’t leave. I have some things I want to talk to you about.” She turned around and was met with an earnest gaze. It reminded her of the look Madara had when he wanted to talk about serious stuff.

This boy was, for better or worse, Madara’s friend. And as far as she knew, the only other person who was as serious about peace as Madara and she were. Sighing, she made up her mind.

Thanks to having been on patrol duty a lot, she knew that the Uchiha wouldn’t be there for another hour and half. But she needed to ask : “ How much time do we have before the Senju patrol is here? And are you sure that Tobirama isn’t creeping around you this time?”. He beamed at her: “Actually Senju patrols don’t come this far. We prefer smaller perimeters. Easier to comb through. And don’t worry about Tobirama, he was sent on a mission far away for a week. That’s why I could sneak out for the past few days.” In another world, it would have probably been funny to witness a guy who was sneaking around his barely seven years old brother. Especially when he was supposed to be the eldest.

They settle down near the river, both rolling their pants to soak their feet because the weather was still nice enough to do so. After a bit of silence, she got them started: “ So I take it that Itama is ok.” That brought a fond smile on his lips: “ Yes. I did as you said and took him back as fast as I could to the compound. But I didn’t forget to grab one of my gambling buddies on my way. He’s a Senju healer, and owes me a lot of money. So I agreed to let it go if he didn’t ask what happened, and just said that he was the one who took care of Itama. After that, our head medic, took a look at him and re-cleaned his wounds. But we didn’t have to touch up your work. It was perfect. I insisted on taking care of him myself, and took all the precautions you said about the water and the soups and the decoctions to stop infections. He gave us a scare that night when his temperature went up and wouldn’t go down for a while. But he made it. It took him a month and a half to recuperate, but he’s back on his feet now. And back on missions too.” When he finished, his tone was somber, and he was glaring holes at the river. “I’m glad that he is ok” was all she could say. She knew that it was bound to happen, and so did he. Hashirama smiled sheepishly before adding: “ The bad news is that Tobirama is too smart for his own good, and figured that something was wrong with the story I told. Especially when I asked around about Uchiha healers. Long story short, both he and Itama know that it was you helped us that night. But don’t worry, they promised not to tell anyone. We don’t want to get you into trouble.”

After that, they were silent for a while, until Hashirama put his thoughts in order and got to the point: “So you are Uchiha Izumi, Madara’s little sister, right? How is he doing?”. She gave him a pointed look: “ Yes I am. And he’s fine. But, I hope you get that he’s not coming back here. No, need to keep coming.”. That seemed to sadden him a lot. She didn’t know what he was going to say next, but frankly she didn’t care. She had other plans for this discussion: “He told me about what the two of you were talking about. About peace. And your prefect little village.”. Hashirama was taken aback: “ He did? So does that mean he still cares? I thought that him awakening his Sharingan, meant he had scratched out our friendship, and with it our dreams and plans together.” .

Izumi turned to look at the river again: “That’s more or less what it meant. On the friendship front not the dreams part. Nothing can make him give up his dreams of peace. But your friendship is over. Or a more appropriate term would be on pause. Until the right timing comes.” He didn’t seem to understand: “ The right timing? And when is that?”. Izumi just shrugged: “Who knows? That could be in ten years or in fifty. Maybe never. Right now, the two of you are just tools in the hands of your respective fathers. And even if you hate it, you have to take your roles seriously, and fight with all your might. Because if you don’t, someone else will just pick up where you left. And that person might not share your convictions.” . He seemed unwilling: “ So I am just supposed to fight my friend. Kill him even?”. She knew what it felt like to be doing something you didn’t want to do. Especially, when you could clearly see that it was wrong and meaningless. She had worked for years in the Organization, long after she stopped believing in it. But great endeavors require a lot of self-sacrifice: “Sadly, yes. What other options do you have? Your heart is in the right place, but you must first learn how to work the system before you start thinking about taking it down. To achieve peace, you need power and influence, and you will only get that if you prove to the shinobi around you that you are the best. And that is done on the battlefield.”. He just sighed pensively: “I know that. But do you think it’s possible? Achieving peace?”

Right there. That’s where she wanted the conversation to go. Make no mistake, she didn’t think of herself as some sort of messiah sent to deliver the world from its pains through her sermons. But as the only adult trapped in a child’s body in this place, she knew that she had a role. She knew her capacities and she knew that she was no leader. That was Madara’s thing. And maybe Hashirama’s too. She knew next to nothing about the boy, and so didn’t want to gamble much about his abilities and strengths as a visionary and a leader. But it takes two to tango. And he was the only partner they could find for Madara from the Senju side. So it wouldn’t hurt to give him some pointers towards the road he should take, and hope for the best.

So she started: “You’re lucky I got a fantastic memory, and so I can repeat to you the same speech I gave Madara. With a small twist of course. The two of you are not normal kids. You are the heirs to your respective clans. Somehow, against all odds, you were kindred spirits, and managed, for the duration of one idyllic summer, to befriend each other and see that the people on the other side are humans too, who share the same dreams, joys and pains as you. That’s a good start . Maybe it’s a sign of fate that the two of you are destined for great things. But it’s over now. You’re back in the cold and harsh reality. Now, you need to work on yourself. You need to become stronger and hone your skills, while keeping your values. Because unless you become the leader of the Senju, your dreams will remain just that: dreams. And after you become their leader, you will be responsible for all the lives in your clan so you will need to be careful, because your decisions will affect all of them. Then and only then, if your shared feelings survive the avalanche of violence that is coming towards them, will the two of you be able to someday create that village. Only if you are strong enough, both mentally and physically, to keep the world from stripping you of every last piece of hope , will you be able to achieve peace. And build that village where the Uchiha and Senju live together” 

They were looking each other in the eye by this point. He was paying a great deal of attention to what she was saying. Good. So he is not as stupid as she initially thought. Her work here was done. She got up rolled down her pants, put her sandals and smiled at him: “That’s all I had to say. Good luck. I will be sheering for the both of you. Mainly Madara-ni, but you’ll get some of the splash too. But starting from tomorrow you’ll go back to being the enemy. I hope it won’t be forever though. I love gambling too, and I have a feeling that playing against you would be easy money.” And with that she turned to leave.

After, she took a couple of steps, she heard the sound of someone getting up from behind her and he yelled: “I promise that I will do whatever it takes to make our dreams come true.”

As she was entering the forest, she smiled and raised her hand without turning back: “See you on the battlefield, Senju Hashirama.”

On her way back, she thought about all she had done so far. For some reason, she had felt responsible for these two boys’ dreams. She didn’t know why, but she believed in them. Peace was a noble thing, and if there was a way she could contribute to stopping the practice of sending kids to kill each other, she would do her best. But who knew if this could happen? Who knew if this wasn’t just a passing phase for the two boys? Especially that she didn’t know if Hashirama had any sort of mental support. She would be there every step of the way with Madara to prevent the world from darkening him, she had made that promise to Mikoto, but what were the chances of young Hashirama having the mental strength it took to achieve their dreams, all on his own? Not good enough. But then again, she had underestimated him the first time they met, and had proven herself wrong all on her own. Now that she knew about the effects of chakra on strength, she was left wondering about how strong he actually was, for his chakra to be able to crack the ground without the need to put a bit of physical strength like she did.

She came back late. Tajima and the boys were already there when she entered the house. At least they had managed to scramble some left overs and dry foods and were feasting on them. When she sat down, Madara asked: “Where were you? I was starting to get worried.” She lied:” The forest. I was looking for some herbs and lost track of time.” He nodded and was going to leave it at that, when she reached for a plate and everybody noticed the big scratches on her bloodied knuckles. Punching trees and rocks came at a price. She will have to invest in a good pair of gloves. And to calm down Mama Madara, who was already fussing : “What the hell happened to you. Were you fighting wild animals for those plants?”

She smiled deviously: “It’s the side effects of the new jutsu I came up with. I will show later.”

That got Tajima and Izuna’s interest. The later couldn’t believe her: “ I haven’t seen you in the training grounds for a while. You’re telling me that you came up with a new jutsu on your own, in such a short while?”. The bastard had already come up with a signature katon jutsu of his own, but he was doubting that she could do the same. She admits to not training as much as he does, and not having his natural talent, but who the hell does he think he is?

Giving him the sugary sweet smile, they all knew she only used when she wanted to threaten someone, she said: “Just wait. Once you see it, you will never dare to anger me again.” . Now they were all curious. They knew that she wasn’t one to over sell herself.

That night, as Tajima and her brothers stood on the wooden porch, she made her way to the middle of the neatly trimmed garden. Gathering a significant amount of chakra in her fist, she jumped to give herself momentum, aimed at the ground and punched. The result was instantaneous. The ground started breaking all around her, and she jumped back on the porch, to avoid being dragged in the hole that was now taking up most of the garden. She looked at the boys smugly. The shock wave had reached the porch and even if it hadn’t destroyed it, some wood planks were sticking out. Madara and Tajima had been able to stay standing by sticking themselves to the walls, but Izuna had fallen on his butt, white as a sheet. He kept mumbling: “What the hell? What the actual hell? One punch now and she could kill me! I don’t know what to worry about more, her or the Senju!”. She just smugly said: “You just need to be a good boy. I won’t have to punch you if you don’t give me a reason to”. For once, he didn’t retort back.

Tajima and Madara had other concerns. They made her explain how she did it, and when she was done, Tajima said: “That’s certainly an interesting use of your chakra control abilities. It’s not a technique for everyone. It requires great precision both in maintaining large quantities of chakra in one point, and releasing them at the right time.” She nodded: “ Yes, and it’s also perfect for my smaller chakra reserves. I still need to practice it, though. To get how it works, and how to get intent to match results.” Madara piped in: “ Just don’t do it here ok? We actually like living in this house, and at this rate, you might destroy it.”

The four of them turned to look at the destroyed garden.

The week after that, her reputation grew in the clan. A lot of people grew scared of her after she destroyed training ground two when giving a demonstration to her fellow shinobi. Especially the elder council. They knew that they couldn’t out run her if she wanted to punch the living daylight out of them. She looked forward to the next clan assembly. Yuki had followed her for a two days, trying to get her to teach her how to do it. After she caved in, Yuki had tried to replicate the results, but she also failed, like Madara and Izuna. The teaching of this technique had to be restricted, when some shinobi used his Sharingan to try and copy it and somehow, ended up with second-degree burns all over his hand. Tajima had also decided that, even if he was proud that his daughter joined the ranks of the prodigies in a field other than medicine, he couldn’t afford to repair the damage she was causing; especially that she was getting better every day. So all training that involved her monstrous strength was to be done in the forest from now on.

It was on this good note that she celebrated the end of her first year as Uchiha Izumi.


	9. Everything she never knew she wanted

The fighting had started again as soon as the snow melted. It wasn’t as bad as the first time, because all parties had learnt their lesson. And it also had something to do with the fact that this war was not linked directly to either the Uchiha or the Senju. The Uchiha were fanning the flames more than anything, and the Senju were just trying to stop them from making the problem grow bigger.

Amazingly enough, both clans had managed to keep the ceasefire going although autumn and until near the end of winter, when something huge happened. The protagonists of the incident were the Shimura and the Hyuga clans, who were both allies of the Senju, and so supposedly on the same side. To understand what happened, an introduction to both clans is necessary.

The Hyuga were one of the biggest noble shinobi clans of the Land of Fire. They were as high-profile as the Uchiha and the Senju in some aspects. But they preferred to keep to themselves even more than the Uchiha. They only struck up an alliance with the Senju because they too were forced to move south, and had to try and be neighborly with someone. And there was no way in hell that it could be with the Uchiha who had a rivalry with them over which dojutsu was the best. They didn’t fight much, but for having witnessed their Juken with her own eyes, she knew that they were worthy opponents.

The Shimura however were more of a second zone clan. They had some strong shinobi, and were big enough to be noteworthy, but they lacked that certain something that put some clans in the big leagues. They had no kekkei genkai, no amazing bodies and no hidden techniques. Not even a standing summoning contract like the Sarutobi had with monkeys and apes.

Pig teammates apparently ran in both sides, because like the Chinoki before them, the Shimura had no qualms about betraying an ally to gain an advantage. They couldn’t exactly steal something from the Senju, so they decided to try and get their hands on the Hyuga’s Byakugan. On one of their joined missions, they attacked the three Hyuga shinobi that accompanied them, and killed them to steal their eyes. They then tried to make it look like they had been ambushed by an Uchiha team they had managed to lure near the place where the events took place. They even sacrificed one of their own, to not raise suspicions while they were still working on how to replicate the Byakugan. Apparently, replicating dojutsu was a common research field in this era, and the Shimura thought themselves capable enough to do it. Their plan would have probably worked, if they had picked any other clan other than Uchiha to shoulder the blame.

The Hyuga had a secret. A secret that only the other dojutsu wielding clan knew about. A long time ago, both clans were looking for ways to stop their kekkei genkai from being stolen. A member of the Uzumaki clan, the cousins of the Senju from the Land of Whirlpools who specialized in seals, came up with a solution he tried to sell them both. It was a seal, that you could put on the head of the members of the clan, that had two properties: First, it allowed the person who had put the seal to burn the brains of the ones wearing it with just one hand sign. The other was that once the person dies, their eyes get automatically destroyed.

The Uchiha had obviously refused such an inhumane thing and kept to the practice of hunting down the thieves and killing them. But the Hyuga had started using it on almost every member of their clan that wasn’t a direct descendant of the clan head. It was one of the many points both clans disagreed on, but had decided to keep a secret between them.

Anyway, as soon as word got out about what happened, the Hyuga clan head knew that someone had tried to play him. The Uchiha knew that the forehead bandages of the Hyuga clan members weren’t just a fashion statement, and that it was useless to try and steal the Byakugan from someone other than him and his eldest son. He contacted Tajima, to ask him to play along, until the results of their investigation came through. It was really funny when Tajima sent Madara’s squad to act out a “fight”, between them and the Hyuga heir’s team, in front of everyone in the middle of a market. The Shimura, who had been on edge ever since they discovered the empty eye sockets of their victims, relaxed a little. It was the wrong move because, not even a week later, the Hyuga clan had stormed into their compound, killing as many as they could, before retreating to the Senju territories. They met with a confused Senju Butsuma on the same night, and dissolved the alliance when he refused to pick a side. No one was more satisfied about the whole thing than Tajima, and on the few occasions he had crossed swords with Butsuma after that, he never failed to bring it up. The Uchiha who were “angry” at having been framed, attacked the Shimura once again, and the Senju had to go and defend their allies.

It was during one of those times, in the early days of spring, that Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama fought each other for the first time. Izumi’s prediction had been correct and, after getting information on the characteristics of their squad, Butsuma created one that could match it. The Senju team also had four members: the brothers, Hashirama, Tobirama and Itama, and their first cousin, a girl named Senju Touka. This team had been rushing as back-up to help the Shimura fend off an Uchiha attack, when Tajima had ordered Madara’s squad to prevent them from coming any closer. Then and there, they learned why Senju Butsuma had been hiding his heir all this time, instead sending him to the front like Madara. The bastard had a kekkei genkai: The Mokuton.

They had obviously paired up at the beginning of the fight: Madara and Hashirama, Izuna and Tobirama, Hikaku and Itama, and finally Izumi and Touka. The first two pairs were on even grounds but for the two others, the Uchiha advantage was quick to show. Itama had turned up to be their medic. A good fighter, but not good enough to face Hikaku, and certainly not as good as Izumi in the field of chakra control to be able to extract himself from his opponent’s genjutsu fast enough to avoid the sword coming at him. Imagine their surprise when a branch grew of the hand of Hashirama, who was keeping an eye on his brother while fighting, and struck Hikaku’s hand. He had jumped back fast enough when he noticed something coming at him, and managed to avoid any serious injuries. The Uchiha were all surprised and Izuna hadn’t even seen the punch ,that sent him flying, coming. His attention was instantly back on his opponent, but he kept cursing the freaky Senju loudly all through the fight.

Madara was on edge. Clearly his old friend hadn’t told him about his capacities. The good thing about wood though was that it burned, and fire was kind of Madara’s thing. Still he was pushed to give this fight his all, a first time for him. It was especially aggravating when you took into count the fact the Hashirama was backing up both Itama and Touka with his branches that came out of everywhere, while keeping a careful eye on Tobirama and Izuna, ready to help his brother if Izuna had an advantage.

On her side, her fight with Touka was going great. The Senju girl was a serious opponent, but she was no match for Izumi. She was a genjutsu specialist, and at the beginning of their fight, had tried to cast one on Izumi. Izumi hadn’t been able to help it and exclaimed mockingly: “ Did you just try to trap me in an illusion?”. That had earned a few snickers from the Uchiha squad, who knew that Touka was done for. The poor girl hadn’t even had the time to think before Izumi had sent her flying to a tree. Not one of her special punches. She wasn’t planning on killing anyone if she could avoid it, and there was no need to show her cards from the beginning. Touka had come to her senses quickly and went back into the fight. But each time she tried to trap Izumi in one of her jutsus, she just kept avoiding it and trying to knock her out to get it over with, only for one of Hashirama’s branches to pop out of nowhere and stop her. It gave Touka the time she needed to recuperate and go back on the offensive. After it happened a few times, Izumi had been angered enough to let her good resolutions go with the wind. She gathered chakra in her fist, and before the branch could come out of the ground to try and stop her, she punched it really hard. The branch broke, a hole was dug in the ground surrounding it and a couple of trees fell off. The four Senju who had never experienced this were thrown off balance and landed in various awkward poses, while her teammates knew that it was coming and had jumped away from the impact zone. Now it was their turn to be surprised.

Hikaku just sighed: “ What happened to playing nice?”. Izuna brushed some of his hair out of his eyes and said: “ A warning would be appreciated next time.”. And Madara just looked amused at the flabbergasted look on Hashirama and his teammates face. She on the other hand just raised her balled fist and gave Hashirama a glare: “Keep to your side of the fight, and stop butting in where you’re not invited.”

The Senju squad had jumped to the other side of the hole, and where eying them warily. Hashirama gave an amused laugh at her remark, but Tobirama interrupted him: “ Anija, we need to get going. This fight can’t keep going on any longer.” Hashirama just threw him a look: “You say that like it is simple to beat them. We’re on equal terms. I am already fighting as hard as I can. Madara is a lot stronger than what you think. A moment’s carelessness could cause us to lose. And you still haven’t managed to shake off Izuna either.”

The Uchiha just listened, not planning on attacking, unless the Senju made a move to leave. And sure enough, a falcon came into view, up in the sky. That was their signal. Madara just gave them a devious smile: “ Let’s do this again some other time, ok? We have places to be.” And with that they bolted in the direction of the compound. Their mission was just to stall them, while collecting information on this new squad that was supposed to rival theirs. It was a success on both counts.

When they gave their report back, Tajima’s unease was clear. The Mokuton was supposed to be a legend. But now it actually existed. And the details they gave about Hashirama’s strength only made things worse. Madara, too, was preoccupied. So far, everybody had thought that he was the strongest kid around. The Uchiha had already started thinking about a future where their supremacy was clear. But now, the Senju heir seemed to be as good as theirs. Basically an equal rivalry like Butsuma and Tajima’s was in the making. The stalemate between the clans was only getting longer and longer. Madara who had finally found a rival, was training harder than ever. Everyone on their squad was.

After that confrontation, Tajima had had his fun with the Shimura, who were reduced to a quarter of their initial size after the attacks of both Hyuga and Uchiha. The hyuga clan had decided to not ally themselves with anyone else. But their relationship with the Uchiha had clearly improved, and they even exchanged courtesy visits 

It was spring which meant that it was all hands on deck. Their squad was relatively new, and half its members only had a year of experience, so they were more like tag alongs. They were usually sent to fluff up the numbers on high profile missions, and sometimes with just an adult as supervision in more local missions.

Even after the relocation, the shinobi clans still had their official territories clearly outlined. The Uchiha were the lords of the south, while the Senju ruled over the north. The first type of missions they had clearly outlined that difference. They were mainly hired to protect the lands of the farmers or the merchandize that was being transported, or to sabotage their competitors from the north, like burning their crops, or stealing their caravans. And the Senju did the same with their northern clients as well as for their own lands. Only the shinobi Senju had moved south, the others had stayed up north to keep the farming going.

The second type of missions was commissioned by the daimyo. The Land of Fire was prosperous, and covered a large territory between other countries that were not as lucky. Each year, during spring and summer, the other daimyos would send their own shinobi to try and take over some of that territory or at least some of its production of the year.

The daimyo of the Land of Fire was clearly born under a lucky star, because his land housed some of the strongest shinobi clans to exist. Each clan had their own side of the border to protect. The Senju were in the north, fending of the people of the Land of Lightning. The Uchiha kept the nomads of the Land of Wind from coming in. The Hyuga were in the east facing the people of the Land of Water and the Akimishi-Yamanaka-Nara axis had the west and the people from the Land of Earth. All other affiliated clans either had to help one of them or had a smaller country threat to fend off. It was a delicate situation, and was where the shinobi made household names of themselves when there was no inter-clan war going on. Like right what happening then.

Her first time near the border reminded her of the time she had volunteered for Doctors without borders to give herself a reason for being in Africa when a series of politicians deaths kept happening all over the continent. The nomads of the Land of the Wind lived in a harsh desert and even if they could trade their gold and minerals of all kinds, for huge amounts of money, it clearly wasn’t enough and they had been trying to get their hands on some of the fertile lands of the Land of Fire. The fights were brutal and made their war with the Senju almost look like a friendly banter. Their squad had gained a huge reputation in the battles they were participating in. Especially that their mastery over katon techniques was playing in their favor when facing the more Futon leaning nomads.

Their biggest foes, however, were the puppeteers. The nomads of the Land of Wind were masters in the creation and control of puppets that were loaded to the brim with weapons and mechanisms. They offered them a clear advantage in long distance battle, especially that the Uchiha shinobi used their own bodies to fight and were therefore more vulnerable. The best way to beat them was to cut the chakra threads they used to control the puppet and then go after the puppeteer. But that required getting dangerously close to the puppet and a high speed execution to stop the chakra threads from relinking. What was worse was that all their weapons were coated with different poisons and one scratch could mean death. Before, the Uchiha used to lose a lot of shinobi that way. But now Izumi was here, and only a master of poisons like her could undo the work of another.

Izumi had the advantage of knowing exactly which effects were caused by which plant. When they were briefed about what to expect in the borders, she had requested information on the type of plants that grew in the Land of Wind to prepare herself. It wasn’t that long of a list, because the Land of Wind was mostly desert, and Tajima had sent a special squad to get her that list as fast as possible. Their greenhouse came in handy because most of what they needed to make antidotes was ready to be shipped to the border’s headquarters in no time. Anko stayed in the compound to coordinate the shipments as well as to be there for the shinobi who were on other missions.

Besides Izumi all the other medics were hired help that only came in once the fights were over. This was no way to fight in a war, as medical support had to be there, even if it only stayed in the back. She realized just how careless she had been so far. What was the use of having good medicine if there were no doctors around to administer it? The coming winter season, she promised herself that this was going to change. But so far she was doing her best, finishing everyday utterly exhausted and out of chakra. At first she fought in the battles too, but Tajima finally decided that she was more useful as a medic if she was well rested, and ordered she stay in the back. The Uchiha warriors trusted her and had threatened the other doctors into submission when they had started questioning her methods. But at the end, they ended up learning some stuff from her, and she was more than willing to share her knowledge. For every poison they could come up with, she had an antidote ready in less than two days. A lot of lives were still lost, but by the end of summer, the legendary Uchiha medical genius’s reputation was all over the Land of Fire.

Her teammates too, had made names of themselves. Yuki had also been dragged to the border to fill in for her, once she started working as a medic full time. Izumi had never resented Tajima more. Sure her brothers and cousin were also around the same age, with Izuna being a year younger than Yuki actually, but they were on another level than the rest of the shinobi. They were as skilled as some of the adults even if none of them was old enough to be considered a teenager. Yuki, with all her hard work was still too inexperienced. It was like bringing a lamb to the wolf to feed on. Thankfully, she made it out alive with only a huge scar on her right cheek. Izumi had done her best to heal it, and it was only apparent when you looked for it, but Yuki was self-conscious about it. Izuna, bless his devious mind, had actually helped with this, by teaching Madara some cute comforting speech and making him repeat it to her. The older boy had finally caught on to what was happening, and was as red as Yuki for the rest of the night. Still moments like this were rare, and she felt like they had all lost something by the end of that summer. Izuna and Hikaku had both awakened their Sharingans after witnessing the horrifying deaths of some of their closest friends. She had done her best to comfort them, but both had still tried to act strong and not show the depth of their sorrow. Tajima’s response was as cold as ever. He actually congratulated them with a happy smile, not even mentioning the fallen kids.

Their Senju counterparts were also doing great. The news about Hashirama’s Mokuton had spread like wild fire. He apparently had been especially vicious in their fight against the lightning shinobi, and his body count was higher than Madara’s. If she hadn’t guessed earlier, now she knew that he was clearly holding back against them. She knew that he wasn’t skilled enough yet to kill them, but the fact that their injuries were minimal said something.

When their contract with the daimyo expired for the season they were finally able to go back home. It had been more than a month since she was back in the compound. After a week of rest, she went back to work. She had been Anko’s apprentice for two years, and after that summer there was no longer use in pretending that she wasn’t as skilled as her mentor. They decided that she had officially graduated. Now that the Uchiha had two certified doctors, even if one was only completing eight years old in a few months during winter, they could start teaching others. Anko let the members of the clan now, and the very next day five young girls and two boys were enrolled by their parents.

Izumi was a “medic-nin”. That’s the official term the kids used to describe her when they said that they wanted to be just like Izumi-senpai. Both shinobi and doctors. Sadly none of them had her skill in chakra control. But unlike the Senju, the medicine they practiced didn’t rely on chakra a lot, and so the kids were able to learn without missing too much. Especially that Anko , who did most of the teaching because Izumi hated that part of the job, was also not an innate healer, but had achieved it through a lot of hard work. The rest of her squad had been enrolled as teachers for the kids to help with their special schedule that had to enclose shinobi skills training too. Against all odds, Madara had turned out to be the best teacher. He adapted well to each kid’s specificities and instinctively knew how to balance giving the carrot and the stick. The kids were doing so great under his tutelage, that some of the regular kids in training started to come for extra lessons with him. His tough reputation was starting to get reversed in the minds of the clan members.

Izumi, as mentioned before, didn’t like teaching. But she liked the praises. And so when the kids had begged the great Izumi-senpai to help them with their anatomy lessons, she decided to strike two birds with one stone. She had just received the body of some bandit, and was planning on performing an autopsy and so she invited them to watch. They should get used to the sights early on or it was useless to waste time in teaching them. Thankfully nobody fainted, but a few vomited at first.

The autopsy was going great, and she was drilling them on the stuff they were supposed to know already, while answering their curious questions. One of the boys, Hiroto , who was their best student, suddenly asked: “ What’s that?”. He was pointing to the heart of the corpse. She knew that he wasn’t asking about the organ though, but about the black dots that weren’t supposed to be on it. She knew by now that the heart was the biggest chakra producer, but the chakra pathways there were especially resistant, not letting the energy come in contact a lot with the tissue. She took the heart out and examined it closely. The side that wasn’t facing them until know was full of black dots. Activating her Sharingan, she pumped some of her own chakra into the heart and realized where the problem lay. The bandit earlier in his life probably had an injury close to the heart, which sectioned one of the small chakra tubes wrapped around it. Even if he survived, the injury was never properly healed and the tube was left with a small opening that leaked the chakra into his heart. From earlier testing, she knew that all tissues could handle a certain amount of chakra passing through them to get to its proper pathways, or to the organ it was supposed to be used in. But she had theorized that large amounts of chakra going through organs that normally didn’t require such quantities, like the eye for the Sharingan, caused the black dots. The same black dots described in the thieve’s scroll. The same ones she hadn’t been able to replicate to study, so far.

She put the heart down carefully and hugged Hiroto as hard as she could. This boy didn’t know just how much he had helped her. She probably wouldn’t have noticed as she was planning on studying this guy’s liver more than anything. Thanking the brats for their help, she kicked them out of the lab and sent them to look for Madara-sensei for an early afternoon lesson.

Izumi took multiple samples of the heart tissues and examined them. Clearly they weren’t burns, but small platelets of an unidentified molecule. The thing that sucked when you were doing research in a bad lab was that, even if you know the techniques you should use, you have no means of finding out anything with a proper scientific method. The good news however was that you don’t need to use a scientific method to prove the validity of your work. It kind of worked out nice to be the drug producer, the commission who approved the drug and the doctor who prescribes it. After two days of trying every method she could think of to identify the molecule, she decided that she actually didn’t need to. She just needed to figure out a way to make it go away. And so, she set up camp in Anko’s lab. She spent days combining plants and mushrooms in various quantities, and mixes and trying them out on the very limited number of samples she had. She ate there and slept there. The kids were starting to think she was going crazy, and a worried Anko had tried to get her to go up to her apartment to take a bath and rest, but she refused to leave. Her goal was to come up with a decoction that only affected the molecule and not the tissue around it. She chose to make a decoction and not a proper drug to keep it from harming the body with too much side effects. After, days of hard labor and more than seven dead bunnies (who were properly mourned as martyrs of the Uchiha clan by everyone), she finally came up with something. The tissue was cleared, and the bunny that had drunk it wasn’t dead after more than a week, he even seemed to be pretty happy. She finally decided that it could be tried on humans. But she had only awakened the Sharingan for less than two years, so there was no way to notice any real difference, or she would have tried it herself.

After discussing it with Anko, they once again let the clan know that they were looking for volunteers. A few shinobi came forward, but they finally settled on Elder Hizashi as their first guinea pig. He had made a great argument for his case. His vision was almost gone so there probably was no other person in the clan whose optical nerve was more clogged than his, and he was old and retired so even if her decoction made things worse it wouldn’t change anything. And finally he added that this was probably the only chance she would get to poison him.

Izumi had then moved into his house for a week of testing and monitoring. The old bag of bones turned out to be a decent guy. His wife was dead and he lived alone. He had a daughter who came to check on him every day and take care of him, but he refused to move in with her because he liked his independence. He enjoyed her cooking, and taught her how to play shogi. And they enjoyed each other’s company, even when their arguments were loud enough to alert the neighbors.

The tests were successful. She gave him a heavily concentrated dose in the first evening before going to sleep. A few hours later, he woke her up complaining about a burning feeling in his eyes. It had lasted for hours, but when the morning came he was positive that his eyesight was better. She kept giving the decoction every day, and after the fourth he was seeing as good as when he was in his twenties. After that she felt more confident in giving the decoction to other people who suffered from the same problem, experimenting with dosage and frequency of use. In the middle of winter, they had the final results: A low concentration decoction will be prescribed to be taken once a month as a preventive medicine, that would prevent the little plaques from forming.

Over the next few years, Izumi’s medicine became a must for every person who awakened the Sharingan. It became so mainstream that its cost was covered by the clan’s communal fund, and people could just come and take their monthly dose for free.

That winter, Madara became eleven, and the twins celebrated their eight birthday. For both occasions, Izumi had managed to bake some cakes and invited the kids and younger shinobi to celebrate with them. She had decided that it was time to start working concretely on change. If they were going to achieve peace, they couldn’t do it on their own. They needed the support of their clansmen. And the first step to getting that support was to start talking about change. Thanks to Izuna’s large group of friends, and to Madara’s charisma as a leader and visionary, things were starting to pick up.

Slowly, but surely a small society was building itself within the clan. Under Madara’s leadership, they had started forming groups to talk and share their ideas. Peace wasn’t brought out yet, but everybody was pushing for change. They weren’t exactly revolutionary ideas, as everybody had thought about better living conditions at some point in their life. What was new was the fact that they were saying it out loud. Until then, children were just obeying the orders and walking in their parents footsteps. But now, once the clan heads kids started voicing their opinions, the others felt like they also could go to the path less traveled. Some voiced their ideas about how they didn’t like shinobi life and wanted to try some of the stuff they saw civilians doing during missions, others talked about how they didn’t like some of their clan’s practices. Madara at one point even brought out the subject of child soldiers and his dead brothers, and every single person in the room could identify with his pain. They started questioning whether the clan’s adults really knew what they were doing or were just going with the motions. Their small society was gaining influence within the clan, with kids spreading their ideas to their parents and siblings. Not everybody was convinced, but their generation were getting stronger and stronger and their numbers were growing, everybody was starting to notice Madara’s faction. They also didn’t make the mistake of ignoring the girls. Even the non-kunoichi were invited to their small gatherings. It had been Izumi’s idea when she started noticing how much new jobs at the green house were sought after. They were now up to ten gardeners, and were thinking about expending to match with the new requirements for making the eye decoctions. She got that not everybody liked fighting, and even in a clan like the Uchiha were shinobi were revered, some might want to lead a civilian life. They just needed to figure out a way to make it happen. She still hadn’t forgotten about the threat the Senju’s dominance over agriculture made on their chances of survival.

A good moment to bring it up was when she presented both her brothers with birthday gifts, even if Madara’s came over a month late. She gave them identical pendants in the form of the Uchiha crest on one side , and on the other side, a small list of names was engraved. Mikoto’s, theirs and the names of their dead siblings. She also had an identical one made for herself, but hers had an additional line that said “One, Thing”. She had refused to explain its meaning to the boys. The pendants were simple, but they were made out of gold (thank god she didn’t spend much of her salary on candy like Izuna), and the craftsmanship was exquisite. Both loved them and promised to wear them all the time. When they asked where she had got them, they were taken by surprise when she told them that she had commissioned some of the Uchiha blacksmith to make them. They were not aware that their clansmen were capable of such delicate work, but she did because they had made all the tools for her laboratory.

That had gotten the three of them into a talk about the clan’s craftsmen. So far they had a few seamstresses, whose best work was the mantles the shinobi wore for both battle and special occasions, and the blacksmiths who made the weapons. There were more of them ever since the Uchiha came to possess the mines and therefore raw materials, but it wasn’t enough. The Uchiha were losing a lot of good opportunities. She had made the pendants especially to show them, that with the Uchiha’s exceptional eyesight, maybe having some jewelers would be a better option than selling the gold in its raw state.

Izumi was now feeling comfortable enough with them to share her analysis of the current economic situation. She tried to make things sound less dramatic, but her point still stood. A great danger was looming over them, and they had to start taking action. After a round of cursing the Senju as usual, Izuna, the social butterfly of their group, promised to start looking for people who might be interested in the job, as well as to use the time they got when they were out on missions in villages and towns to get more information on the state of the market. And Madara was in charge of handling the elder council, Tajima and the higher ups. His status as heir came in handy for such a job.

She had chosen to only include the boys in her plans for various reasons. First of all, if anyone was going to get credit for her ideas, it would be Madara. And the second reason was that their relationship with Tajima was deteriorating fast. It was a tale as old as time. The alpha male births a heir, and for a while he is proud of him, teaching him how to be a leader and his successor. But as he ages, he starts understanding that he is not immortal, and that a day will come when he won’t be the top dog anymore. He starts seeing everyone around him as a threat to his power and position. Especially the young seed that he is raising with his own hands.

After the time he tried to force Madara to betray his friend, things were never the same again between father and son. It wasn’t obvious to the clan, but to them it was quite clear. Tajima started to side bench his son a lot, or dismiss his opinions when he couldn’t keep him out of meetings. He was especially suspicious of the new group that was starting to idolize Madara instead of him. And at home, his comments always held a bit of venom in them. It probably didn’t help that the twins were on Madara’s side on everything. It probably made him feel isolated in his own house, and so the hours he spent in his office started getting longer and he started avoiding meals with them as much as he could. Izumi wondered if things would have been different had Mikoto been there. Clearly, her death had affected her husband more than he initially let on. But at the end of the day, she had reincarnated as his daughter and not his wife. There was only so much she could do to help such a petty adult.

Spring will be coming soon and bring with it the fighting and missions. It was a vicious cycle that just keeps repeating itself. She had arrived in this world in the beginning of autumn a little more than two years ago. This was her third winter, and so much had happened in such a short while. In her last life, she didn’t have much to herself. In this one, even if the circumstances were less than ideal, she had everything she never even knew she wanted. Loving siblings, friends, a mentor, goals of her own and ambitions….the list never seemed to stop.

She planned on doing everything she could to keep them all safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s a timeline, because even I got lost between the time skips when I wanted to write this chapter. I will work on that. It’s kind of hard to keep track when you only refer to seasons instead of dates:  
> 1.Izumi arrives in this world somewhere around the beginning of September  
> 2\. Mikoto dies three weeks and three days later. Izumi becomes Anko’s apprentice  
> 3.Izumi celebrates her 6th birthday on February 10th  
> 4\. Somewhere around mid-may she saves Itama’s life  
> 5\. In the last days of august, Madara and Hashirama are busted  
> 6\. She has her talk with Hashirama two weeks after that.  
> 7\. February 10th: Izumi’s seventh birthday.  
> 8.The Shimura/Hyuga incident around last days of March  
> 10.In the beginning of April: First HashiMada fight.  
> 11\. Spring and Summer: Missions and the fights at the border.  
> 12 September/ October: Research on the decoction  
> 13\. 24th of December is Madara’s eleventh birthday and the 10th of February is the twins eighth’s   
> 14.End of February: The final form of the decoction.


	10. The fall of the Uzumaki clan

“Remind me again. Why does the reconnaissance work fall on us one more time?”, grunted a displeased fourteen years old Izuna.

He was sitting high in the sky, on his summoning hawk Kyujusho, eyes scrutinizing every inch of the sleeping compound underneath them. Some guards were patrolling the streets, but so far nothing signaled that they were aware of what was about to hit them.

Izumi was sitting not very far away, on a nearly identical hawk, named Takai. She answered her twin without looking up: “Because even if we don’t agree with the purpose of this mission, we can’t stop Tajima from sending our clansmen to battle. And I would rather we avoid any unnecessary deaths on our side that might come from lack of preparation. And, also, you’re the one who insisted we show our cool summoning contracts to everyone the first time.”

Izuna was even more displeased: “I said that because the flying part is cool. And it’s not like we could have hidden it for long. If I had known that we would be used like this all the time, I would have chosen a more land attached animal summon.” This time, Izumi didn’t have to answer him. Kyujusho titled to the side saying: “If you are that dissatisfied, I can easily drop you off and be on my way. It’s not like I don’t have other stuff to do.”. Izuna was clutching his feathers as hard as he could to avoid falling, while he kept cursing the bird in a hushed voice. At least he kept his voice down to avoid being spotted. Finally, Kyujusho let him come back on top when his brother Takai sent him a harsh scowl. It was always like this with those two, their relationship was not as harmonious as Izumi and Takai’s. 

Summoning animals were quite common in this world. Animals here were all dotted with various degrees of intelligence, and therefore dragged by the shinobi in their endless wars. For the most part they seemed to like it, and a lot of them even took pride in working alongside shinobi. Like the dogs with the Inuzuka clan and monkeys with the Sarutobi. Others seemed to have more of reluctant partnership with the humans, like cats with the Uchiha clan. They didn’t like being summoned and if you wanted anything from them, you had to go to their hideout to look for them. But they were also excellent spies and always had information about everything. So, around two years ago, when Hikaku signed a contract with crows that were perfect for his genjutsu, Izumi had asked one of them if he knew about any animal that might be useful to her medical ninjutsu. The cats after taking their bribes finally told her that she might want to try her luck in the Shikkotsu forest, where the Katsuyu slug lived. That slug was supposed to have healing abilities that surpassed her own, and might want to form a partnership with her. It didn’t take long to convince Tajima to let them go look for her, because he was always on board for anything that might advantage the Uchiha clan. However, Madara was extremely busy and couldn’t go and Hikaku already had a contract so Tajima refused to spare him, and that’s how the twins embarked on their journey alone. After multiple adventures in the damp forest, that they swore never to mention to anyone, because of how embarrassing they were, they were unable to find Katsuyu. Instead they find two twin baby hawks, which were barely out of the egg. It was raining and their mother was nowhere to be found, and so the Uchiha twins decided to take them with them to a nearby cave, to hide from the bad weather in the harsh forest. Kyujusho had almost instantly started bickering with Izuna, and for hours, Izumi and Takai just listened to their banter while throwing each other knowing looks. When the rain stopped, the mother hawk came looking for her kids, and after she stopped attacking them and let Takai explain the situation to her, she was grateful and proposed the pairs of twins sign contracts with each other. Izumi and Takai obeyed, but Izuna and Kyujusho took some convincing. One didn’t want to be saddled with a scrawny human and the other wanted a cool summoning not a baby bird. After it was pointed out to them that Izuna’s chakra was strong enough to make him anything but a burden and that Kyujusho’s size would be comparable to his gigantic mother when he grew up, the two reluctantly agreed. So far, aside from the bickering, there partnership was going great. The hawks were as fiercely loyal as Izuna and Izumi were. And because the contract was made when they were quite young, they could easily adapt to their partners chakra affinity, and so their combined attacks were extremely effective. Takai used Izumi’s lightning to gain speed, and the one thing that Kyushujo and Izuna agreed on was that their combined Katon was a sight to behold. Another advantage they had was that, once the hawks were big enough, they could mount their backs and use them to travel long distance or to scout areas from above without being detected. Tajima made full use of this function, and always sent the twins first to avoid any surprises. The four of them hated it, but the twin hawks understood that they couldn’t exactly disobey the clan head.

Once they made sure that everything was in place and that the other clans were exactly where they said they would be, they went back to report to Tajima, in the forest where the rest of the clan was hiding. Madara was waiting for them next to the small clearing they had departed from. He didn’t have a summoning animal like them. The twins had offred to take him back to where they knew the hawks lived and help him sign a contract, especially that he enjoyed falconry a lot, but he just refused. He once confided in Izumi that he felt like he was already bound to something, he just didn’t know what yet.

It’s not like he needed it anyway. Seventeen years old Madara was a powerhouse on his own. He was a master of all skills. His taijutsu was godlike, his kenjutsu made it look like the swords he carried where a part of him and his katon looked like the flames of hell were at his service. He had long since surpassed Tajima, and his name only could scare away armies. Some clans had given a flee on sight order to their shinobi concerning him. The only person that could hold out to him was Senju freaking Hashirama. That bastard was as skilled in Taijutsu and Kenjutsu and his Mokuton kept getting stronger and more complex in shape. And whereas Madara had to rely on her medical skills, he seemed to have developed his own brand of medical ninjutsu that he just practiced directly on the battlefield. His newest addition to his already impressive arsenal came when Madara’s third tomoe was awakened and he discovered himself an ability for genjutsu. The Senju actually learned how to use Senjutsu. The elders had explained to Izumi that Senjutsu was an art taught by either the toads of Mount Myobuku or the snakes of the Ryuchi cave and that it used the power of nature. Not much was known about it because so far the shinobi who were able to master it could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and they always kept their secret. Hashirama’s grasp on it, however, seemed to be tenuous , and he only used it for limited amounts of time. But those two rivals always seemed to like one-upping each other and it wouldn’t be too long before they came up with freakier stuff to keep terrorizing the Shinobi world with their power.

The twins dismounted and the hawks bid their good-byes before annulling the summon. At Madara’s raised eyebrow, Izuna made a full report on what they saw, and the three made their way back to where the others where. Madara just sighed, he too didn’t like what they were participating in, but he couldn’t refuse orders. Even if he was the Uchiha’s strongest general, he couldn’t show insubordination or the clan would be divided and thus weakened. Tajima knew that and made full use of it.

Izumi went to check on the medical tent. There, twelve teenagers in the medical teams official uniform were getting ready. She smiled when she realized how much she and Anko had accomplished in the last six years. They had formed twenty four other medic-nins, and new students were scheduled to start next winter. Anko’s small clinic had gotten so crowded that they had to move to a new location about three years ago, a full-fledged hospital in the middle of the compound. It had multiple wards, two labs, one classroom and the entire left wing of the first floor had been transformed into a pharmacy run by some of their students who preferred research to practicing medicine. The green house had become more than ten times its original size and was now under the direction of Elder Tekka’s granddaughter. They produced enough rare flowers and drugs that they were able to sell them .

The twelve teenagers, who were in the tent, were their most senior students. She had chosen them because this was the first time they were implanting their new response strategy. So far, medics stayed in the back until the fight was over and then had the wounded delivered to them. A lot of lives and limbs who could have been saved were lost that way. So she came up with a new way. She and two other medics who were the most skilled in fighting would form a team that gave emergency treatment immediately on the battlefield. She had gotten Madara, who was now in charge of assigning missions, to form a team of four shinobi whose only job was to spot the wounded and rush them to the tent were the rest of the medics were waiting. She hopped her plan would work. Because the upcoming battle promised to be gory.

They were now in the Land of Whirlpools, and were participating in the annihilation of the Uzumaki clan. The Uzumaki were the cousins of the Senju and had deep ties with them, it was one of the reasons the Uchiha got involved in this sordid plan, but it wasn’t all. The Uzumaki were sealing specialists and the best in the business that is. Sealing was basically the art of using ink and/or scrolls to stuff really big things into tiny spaces and make them stay there. It could also be used to seal away chakra or to provoke certain phenomenon, like the Hyuga clan’s seal. Basically, as long as you had a rich imagination, sealing could be used to make really useful stuff both in and out of the battlefield. The problem was that it required both large quantities of chakra and a certain degree of erudition. And in the shinobi world, being able to read and use a chicken scrawl to convey your meaning was already considered a privilege, so not many mastered it. This put the Uzumaki in a position of choice because their knowledge was invaluable. They were strong and selling some of their products made them quite wealthy. How could they not be, when their monopoly over the market allowed them to set the prices as high as they liked. People were starting to get angry and even the usually polite Nara-Akimichi-Yamanaka axis was complaining loudly. Throw in the people’s fear of the strong and the fiery tempers of the Uzumaki, which made them pass as snobbish and haughty, and you had yourself around half a dozen angry clans who were out for blood.

It all started with a small coalition of shinobi clans from the Land of Whirlpools. They decided to band together and to attack the Uzumaki clan, kill them all and steal away all their secrets. But they knew that were not strong enough and, even if they succeeded, the Uzumaki had a scary backer: The Senju. After cursing the fact that the bully was hiding behind a stronger bully for a while, they remembered that the Senju also had enemies that weren’t afraid of crossing them: The Uchiha and the shinobi of the Land of Lightning. And so they secretly sent propositions to both parties: Help us get rid of the Uzumaki, and we promise to make the knowledge about sealing available to every participant, not just one particular clan.

The proposition was enticing, but it put the Uchiha in a tight spot. The ceasefire had no longer been effective for years. Shinobi who had accounts to settle kept bumping into each other, and at this point, it didn’t even matter who started it. The killing had started again, some of it was improvised guerilla style in the woods, some of it was in proper planed battles. The body count was always high with kids being the primary victims. And it wasn’t just Uchiha and Senju, rivalries were breaking out everywhere. Even the Akimichi got into a nasty fight with the Hyuga and dragged their allies into the fight with them. Things had settled down however and apologies were exchanged, so both clans were trying to become friendly again. In this context, the Uchiha participating in such a bloody plan would be considered normal. But banding to annihilate an entire clan was in really bad taste and the Uchiha had barely started to build a good relationship with their neighbors, even putting an end to the century long rivalry between Hyuga and Uchiha. Their heir was even a good friend of Izuna’s. Tajima didn’t want to give them the wrong idea. So he made a counter proposition: Instead of just keeping the knowledge to the participants, let’s just make it public and let the whole world benefit. That way nobody would get the idea of hording it to themselves to make money out of it, and the clans who didn’t participate but benefitted anyway would no longer have any objections. His proposition was quickly agreed upon and the people of Lightning who liked it too were on board. Some clan of the Whirlpools was put in charge of the preparations, and the Uchiha sent their troupes in the early days of April once everything was settled. The twins reconnaissance flight was just to make sure that everybody was holding their end of the deal. And they were. This promised to be a blood bath.

After she was done checking on the medical tent, she and the two other medic-nins, who were going into battle, joined their respective squads. As always, she was in the front with Madara, Izuna and Hikaku. They worked well as a team. Madara opens the fight, Hikaku traps people in his genjutsu and either she or Izuna finished the job. They also kept her protected when she had to focus on helping someone. Madara had both his Gunbai and kama in his hands ready to go. The Gunbai is a non-folding fan, carved from a unique spirit tree that was passed down between Uchiha clansmen for generations. Tajima, like Izuna, was more of swordsman and didn’t like to use it, and so the elder council forced him to hand it down to Madara when the later demonstrated his prowess in wielding it. It was one of the many points his fellow clansmen and supporters felt proud about.

Izuna had both his katanas ready as dual wielding was his specialty. He was even better at kenjutsu than Madara, a point he took great pride in. Hikaku preferred the cross bow to keep his advantage in long distance fighting. And finally she had her poison coated senbons ready. In her sleeve was small dispenser, a gem of technology that their blacksmiths came up with after she described her needs, and her small pouch had many recharges. She also had on a cross body bag filled with emergency medical supplies.

Tajima stood in front of them and said: “ Alright, everybody listen up! Tonight’s goal is to bring the Uzumaki down. Your job is to get rid of as many of them as you can .Kill them, cripple them, I don’t really care. But keep some of them alive, we might need them later. We will go from their south door, and slowly make our way to the middle of the compound. We were put in charge of getting rid of their leader and his kids. So if you ever come across a white haired guy with an impossibly long beard call either Madara or me, you can’t take him on your own. This might sound like the description of half their clan’s members but if you meet a particularly haughty one, that’s our guy.”

_Glad you still feel like making jokes_ , thought Izumi. And by the look on their faces her teammates thought so too. However she wasn’t worried. The clan head guy couldn’t be saved and most of the Uzumaki men too, but Madara had discreetly ordered all the people he knew he could trust to avoid killing the children and any woman who didn’t put up a fight. This was all they could do to ease up their consciences. After all this was still the shinobi world, and blood had to come out every once in a while, you just had to make sure it wasn’t yours.

At midnight the signal was given, and their squad rushed in first. Tajima would stay last to coordinate things. The guards were quickly taken care of, before they could raise any alarms and they barged into the Uzumaki compound. It felt a bit sickening to have to go into someone’s house, and into his room to kill him and then go out and repeat the process. Sometimes they would meet up with kids, and Hikaku would use his genjutsu to put them to sleep. Both he and Izuna were loyal supporters of Madara’s undercover work for peace and members of their innermost circle, and there was no need for these kids to be awake to witness this nightmare. Soon enough they no longer had to barge into houses because the screams alerted the neighbors and the shinobi started to come out to check what was going on, only to be slaughtered. Some were more ready than the others, and put up a fight, but it was no use because they were outnumbered and Uchiha freaking Madara was leading the assault. Some of the Uchiha men were injured however and she had to stop fighting and get into doctor work. Slowly their squad started separating as everybody was busy fighting one of the Uzumaki shinobi. Tajima had joined the fight too, and clearly had found the Uzumaki leader he was looking for. The old man put up one hell of a fight. His scrolls kept absorbing Tajima’s jutsus and sending them back to him, which forced Tajima to use kenjutsu instead. The old guy proved himself to be a good opponent in that field too, but Tajima was used to Butsuma’s level by this point and there was no way his opponent could hold for long. And sure enough one misstep and he was struck in the heart and died almost instantly.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye she noticed a girl, around her age, with red hair tied into two buns and a small green diamond shaped mark between her eyebrows. She was hiding behind a door, but watching the fight unfold from a small crack, her face bathed in tears. When the old Uzumaki leader fell, she bolted out of her hiding spot, a scroll in hand trying to attack Tajima from behind. She was clearly an over emotional idiot.

Izumi had just finished, patching up someone and given him to one of the shinobi tasked with getting him back to the medical tent. She looked frantically around for Hikaku, to get him to throw the idiot in a genjutsu before she lost her life stupidly, but he was otherwise occupied. She was the closet one to her, and was left with no choice, so she bolted in front of the red head and made it look like she was attacking her. The girl was clearly scared when her eyes met the two tomoe sharingan, but had on a determined look, clearly planning on going through with her suicidal mission. Izumi couldn’t let Tajima know that they were playing favorites, and so she moved fast and punched the girl in the gut, with one of her special punches, sending her flying to a wall that cracked from the impact. The red head immediately lost consciousness, and blood came out of her mouth. Tajima only gave the situation a once over and nodded at her before bolting, probably to meet up with the other leaders.

She went to kneel next to the girl, knowing that she wasn’t dead because she had carefully angled her hit to cause the less possible damage. Her squad joined her and silently hid her in the middle of them. She would give the girl the first aid care that she needed, but her survival would depend on her own will after that. When she was done, she got up to leave, but then Izuna said, while looking at the door from behind which the girl had come out: “ You can come out now. Take the girl with you and go hide somewhere. And try not to do anything stupid like that again.”. The rest of the squad were only a bit surprised. Izuna was a great sensor, he never missed any chakra that was within nearly a 5 kilometer radius. He had insisted on learning the skill when he came to know that Tobirama was an exceptional sensor. If you thought that Hashirama and Madara’s rivalry was a bit over the top, wait until you hear about Izuna and Tobirama. Sometimes, even in the middle of battles, their siblings had to stop what they were doing just to shake their heads at the two’s antics. Especially when it came to swearing and cursing. Tobirama had quite the extensive vocabulary too, and some of the colorful language that was exchanged made everyone in the vicinity pause to make sure that they understood their meaning.

Sure enough, the door was opened, and a woman in her forties came rushing to the girl. From the equally red hair, you could guess that she was her mother. She hugged her in her arms, and when she realized that the girl was practically fine, she raised her eyes to meet Izumi’s and murmured a tearful thank you before dragging the girl back in. Imagine having to thank your own attacker.

The matter was concluded in a few hours, every involved party met up in the compounds square to share their spoils of war. The Uzumaki basically kept all their secret scrolls in the clan’s school building or in their administrative building. They were worth millions, and after multiple copies were made so that everybody could get one, they split the money and valuables they had found. The Lightning Shinobi and the Uchiha had no qualms about splitting it evenly between them, leaving the others with barely enough to cover the cost of this campaign. There was no honor amongst thieves, and that’s what they deserved for coming up with such a plan anyway. Nobody had agreed that it would bring them benefits other than the scrolls, and if they wanted them, then they should have been strong enough to carry their plan on their own. This was the price for hiring outside help. Even when they tried to take some of the survivor woman and children they had captured with them, to do god only knows what with , the Lightning shinobi leader, a dark skinned man with long braided hair, and Madara put their foot down. Shinobi might not care about honor like samurai do, but trading defenseless women and children was a line that no one would be allowed to cross. Tajima went along with it too, even if he really didn’t care, because appearances were important. The surviving Uzumaki were left with some money and the food that was already there wasn’t touched, and everybody went back to where they came from. The whirlpool shinobi cursed their luck for having such bad teammates but what was done was done, and they were too scared of the Uchiha and the Lightning’s wrath to comeback for more after that. And let’s not talk about the coming Senju wrath.

The first thing the Uchiha did after coming back to their compound was to make more copies of the scrolls and to send them to everyone, allies and enemies alike. Even the daimyo and the samurai of the Land of Iron got one. Even some of the nomads of the Land of the Wind, and the Senju’s allies. Everyone means everyone. This is where Tajima’s devious political mind shone the brightest. The Uchiha’s involvement in Uzumaki massacre couldn’t be hidden. As they had no clear reason to attack, some discontentment was bound to arise. People would condemn them, their allies would be wary and some of their shaky new friendships might end because of it. And the Senju were bound to kick up such a fuss that even the daimyo would have to get involved. But by taking the lead and giving everybody something to gain even if they did nothing, before the news of how exactly they got it reached this side of the continent, all the righteous voices had quitted down. The narrative was quickly switched to the following: The Uzumaki clan grew too arrogant and started to bully all their neighbors, whilst hiding behind their oblivious cousins. The other shinobi clans had no choice but to ask for outside help to stop these dictators in the making, and the Uchiha unafraid of the Senju wrath answered their call. The Uchiha weren’t really bad guys because they weren’t motivated by greed, and the proof was that they shared the spoils of war with everyone. They really were just doing the people of the whirlpool a huge favor.

When the Senju received word of what had happened, it was already too late. They rushed some of their troupes to help out, but they only found the ruins of what was once a glorious compound. They gathered as much of the survivors as they could and took them in, whilst taking their revenge on some of the Whirlpool clans. But they couldn’t attack the Lightning people, it wasn’t worth all the expenses. And when they came back home, nobody was willing to back up their self-righteous claims against the Uchiha. Their allies just professed their anger but did nothing else. The Akimishi, Nara, Yamanaka and Hyuga just nodded politely. And even the daimyo said that it was none of his business. He was just glad that his whirlpool neighbor was now severely weakened and he was even thinking about financing a campaign to take over his land. All the other daimyos were too, probably. All in all, everybody was satisfied with not having to cough up large sums of money for the scrolls and seals every year. The Senju could only gnash their teeth and pick up their weapons to go fight the Uchiha themselves, but that wasn’t exactly news, just that year’s excuse.

After the campaign, the Uchiha started sorting their copies of the scrolls into separate categories: imitable, just give up, and to be studied. All of this was done by their research and development department, one of the many new additions created by Madara’s faction. Over the past six years, their squad had started growing in strength and climbing up the ranks fast. They were quite driven by their ambitions and goals, and had the support of both a large part of the clan and the elder council. Once Elder Hizashi was one their side, things had started going a lot smoother and they were now working together instead of against each other. They still kept a lot of their traditional views, but it was a great way to balance the youngsters over eagerness. And even if Tajima was still weary of them, ultimately he acted in the best interests of his clan and was supportive whenever he could. Madara, who was also put in charge of assigning missions, also became the leader of their small remolding-of the clan initiative.

Izumi had to admit that Madara was a born visionary. A few months after she had told him about it, he took her idea of getting some of their civilian clansmen to become jewelers and ran with it. He started by encouraging some of the younger clan members, who were not fit to be shinobi, to branch out, getting them apprenticeships with craftsmen who had good relationships with the clan. The Uchiha’s excellent eye for details and mastery over fire techniques helped them quickly master stuff like glassmaking, pottery and porcelain making, papermaking and book binding, wood working and carpentry and even stone carving. Some girls, under Izumi and Yuki’s encouragements even asked to be sent to learn fiber and textile crafts, like rug making, embroidery, weaving, knitting and sewing, outside of the clan to learn more than the basic stuff and how to make the Uchiha trade mark mantels. The old Uchiha seamstresses were outraged.

Their blacksmiths were growing in numbers every day, without the need for much help, and thanks to their own ingenuity were becoming pioneers in the field of engineering, especially if it had something to do with weapons. Izumi, with her knowledge of the future started giving them some ideas. She wracked her brains to remember anything that could be useful. For exemple, she was able to come up with the blue prints to make modern locks, because she had learned how to pick them before. Those sold like croissants in a french bakery. All shinobi clans loved new and improved ways to keep their secrets and they always had orders whenever they came up with a new model. The blacksmiths had gotten her idea about the senbon dispensers and managed to create a simple mechanism that made them come into existence without need of her help.

When the apprentices came back, they found that a small factory was ready for them to work in. Their goal was to work on everyday essentials that were both good in quality and fast to make. Izumi described some of the techniques she knew were used in factories to maximize efficiency, and they adapted them to their environment. They worked diligently because they all knew that the results of their work would influence the whole clan.

At first, they were barely able to cover the needs of the clan, but with time people started noticing that the civilian Uchiha under Madara’s protection weren’t looked down on and enjoyed a good status in the clan even if they weren’t shinobi. Everybody was intrigued by what was happening in the factory. And so more and more people started going towards the crafts, and this time they could learn without leaving the compound.

The Uchiha were still a warrior clan, but at this point, about twenty percent of the youngsters started choosing to be civilians and the numbers kept growing. The elder council was horrified at first and tried to argue that this was no time to start diminishing their attack force, but Izumi pointed out that they mostly were weeding out the people who get killed first, the ones who weren’t made for battle. Madara’s plan was for their army to be about quality not quantity. And slowly the elders started seeing that even with the decreased number of new recruits, the results were still roughly the same.

That’s when they started the next phase of their plan: they started selling Uchiha goods to outsiders. They had many merchants in the clan who were only used to selling weapons, but Izuna had done his work. He had long since started befriending them, and other outsider merchants when he could, and managed to convince them to give it a try. For the first batch, the young craftsmen worked tirelessly to come with some of their best work. And the results met their expectation. The merchants sold everything, and came back with more money than expected because they realized they could sell at a higher price than what was agreed upon. The quality of their work was unmatchable, and their prices affordable even for the poorer civilians who didn’t have to sacrifice quality to save money.

Izumi knew about the effects of branding, and slowly they started coming up with what came to called “The Uchiha style”. It was mainly putting the Uchiha crest on some of their products, or using a certain color palette on their pottery to make its provenance clear. Just small stuff that people could point at, to brag to their neighbors about. The most significant aspect was their fashion sense. Izumi had long since longed for some modern looking clothes, and thus influenced the seamstresses. It wasn’t anything dramatic, just some modern looking shirts with the high Uchiha collar, to replace the mantels and yukatas for every day wear, some dresses that mixed both the traditional and modern, and of course adding a heel to their sandals. The later had sold out quite quickly because of how adorable they looked, even if the kunoichi had to train for a while to adapt to them during combat. But beauty was painful. The seamstresses were also young girls and liked to come up with new styles and embroideries, and slowly they were starting to develop a unique style, that was quite sober but really elegant. The mantels were still the Uchiha’s official battle outfits, but about a year ago, for formal occasions, they had all operated a switch . Dark blue haoris with the Uchiha crest stiched on both breasts and dark blue and white hakamas for men. And for the women, blue kimonos with a white obi and a large painted metal obidome in the form of the Uchiha crest. Men liked to keep it sober with only some embroidery on the cuffs and on their belts, but woman tended to accessories it a lot and use fabrics that had some type of pattern on it in addition to the standard blue. It had been a pain to get the male members of her family to go to the fittings for the multiple sets she had had made for them. But at the end, they all looked regal in them, and seemed quite pleased with their reflections in the mirror. She, however, had discovered herself a shopping mania and soon enough, Izuna had to move in with Madara to make space for her wardrobe. It came soon enough, because she was becoming a woman, if you catch the drift, and didn’t feel like sharing any longer with the hormonal teenager that was her twin brother.

Their clientele was starting to grow and more money kept coming in. Because they were a large clan, they had invested quite a bit of money in their new endeavors, and had managed to build several small factories, that were quite efficient in production. They quickly imposed themselves in the market for the past two years or so, but they also made sure not to gain a monopoly over it, so that they wouldn’t rack up enemies like the Uzumaki were doing at the time. And sure enough, their predictions came true.

The majority of what they made was destined for the common people, but some of it was also luxury goods destined for the nobles. In the last month, they had opened some high end shops in the capital and major cities where the wives of the rich and the influential came to do their shopping away from the common people. They mainly sold perfumes, nail polish colors and accessories that were only accessible to rich people or to the Uchiha woman. Another section was meant for both man and women, so that they could browse through the more delicate porcelain, the beautifully designed and matching writing sets, the wood sculptures and other stuff, that the nobles of this era liked to buy to make themselves look more cultured. The shops were still in their trial period but Izumi was confident they would become a success. Nothing was easier than getting money from pretentious people, and her clansmen deserved to be recognized for their art.

These changes weren’t exactly what Izumi had had in mind at first, but she was really happy about them. It was kind of was a mix between her old world and her new one. And what was more important was that the Uchiha were no longer in economical danger. They were not as wealthy as the Senju yet, that would take decades of hard work to achieve, because the other party had had a head start of a couple centuries, but at least they were no longer on the brink of bankruptcy. They were no longer living paycheck to paycheck, and some of the people were even saving up money now. The compound was also changing. First her new hospital was built, and now there was an entire area dedicated to small factories and workshops. People were renovating there old shabby houses, and the elder council was even looking into hiring an outside architect to help with the urbanization projects. And, also, to force him to teach some of the eager to learn Uchiha. And last but not least the Senju’s dominance over agriculture was no longer a sword hanging over their heads. That was what Madara had been working towards. Because they were putting a large chunk of the artisans out of business with their prices ( which wasn’t too many people to begin with, and most of them found other jobs), the Senju also had to start indirectly buying from them, and so they had entered an interdependent relationship, where both parties benefitted from letting what was left unsaid that way.

But the routine they fell into these years was slowly coming to an end, and a storm had started preparing itself to sweep them all in a few years.


	11. Doubts part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hello again! Thanks for reading. I’m sorry it took me a while to write this new chapter. I suffer from a bit of depression, and the last few days were especially hard. The isolation really got to me and I could barely come out of my bed. But I’m feeling better now and voila! It was important to me to show a bit of Hashirama’s side because I don’t like how in most fictions he is depicted as a big doofus when I always felt that his funny attitude is a carefully crafted support system he created to keep himself from falling into all the negative feelings the people who surrounded him dived into. Anyway, stay safe and healthy and if you ever feel like me, try reaching out to other people. Just talking about did me a world of good!

Senju Hashirama stood in the middle of the square of what used to be the Uzumaki compound. He had been there multiple times before and the image of the glorious compound kept overlapping with the one his eyes kept sending him. Instead of the small school, he had planned to base his dream village’s school on one day, stood three and a half burnt walls, while the rest of the building laid on the ground in pieces. Where there was once a restaurant his great uncle would take him to whenever he visited, now there was only air. The worst were the houses. If they weren’t missing walls or a roof, they were probably bathed in blood inside and out. He thought he was in some sort of nightmare that nothing could wake him up from.

The main family of the Senju clan was having breakfast, somewhere in the beginning of April when a middle ranked shinobi barged into their house, past the servants and run to his father’s side. Hashirama recognized him immediately because he made a point of knowing every single one of his clan members, even if it was just their names, faces and ranks. Tobirama was always impressed that his Anija’s brick for a brain could actually remember so many details; when it always seemed to conveniently forget about the deadlines for handing out reports. His father however didn’t seem to bother with such things because he had needed for the man to announce his name and function to stop him from blowing out at the disturbance. But he still glared though.

The man was the shinobi in charge of the aviary for the night. He had just retrieved a message from a falcon used by the Uzumaki clan, and it couldn’t wait because it was stamped with the seal they only used for serious occasions.

Immediately, the father and sons knew that it was serious. The Uzumaki had been worried for a while now about their relationships with the other shinobi clans. They were aware that their monopoly in the field of seals was creating dissatisfaction, and so were preparing themselves to go to war with a lot of people in the next few years. The Senju were a bit in thight spot. Because of their relationship with the Uzumaki, they had access to their knowledge almost for free, but they were also aware that all the other clans weren’t as lucky and thus greatly dissatisfied. Even their closest allies had complained more than once, and Butsuma had tried getting them some better deals, but the Uzumaki were too proud and weren’t willing to sell their art for cheap so it never was enough. Hashirma had asked his father about why they weren’t willing to compromise more and even raised his concerns to the Uzumaki leader, his great uncle. But the Uzumaki only said that old habits die hard, and his father had just sighed loudly and told him that every family had that one idiotic cousin who worried everybody, but they still had to love him and respect his decisions.

Butsuma read the message quickly, and his children only got more worried when they saw the colors leave his face. He silently handed the piece of paper to his heir and cupped his face with his large hand. The kids knew that this what he did when he was thinking about counter measures fast. Tobirama and Itama went behind their elder brother to read the letter at the same time, and slowly all three siblings had a bad feeling in their gut. The letter was brief and written somewhere around midnight last night if you put the duration of the travel between the two compounds into account. It said that the Uzumaki were under attack from a large group of shinobi, probably an alliance of clans, but they still didn’t know who exactly. They said that they would hold their ground, but required some assistance in case more back up kept coming.

Butsuma was angry: “ I knew that something like this was bound to happen. I told them time and time again. Even had our elders talk to them, but to no avail. They even had the gall to tell me that it would take years before anything happened and that they would be ready by then. Well, why are they asking for my help now, if they wouldn’t listen to me at first? Damn them and their pride!” The sentence was followed by a few choice curse words that Tobirma was probably noting somewhere in the back of his mind for his future altercations with Uchiha Izuna. His kids didn’t bother with answering him. They knew that he was just venting his frustration at the unexpected event, and that he would send help anyway. And sure enough, he called one of the servants and had him run to the house of his second in command to tell him to get his men ready. Even if the situation was alarming, they knew that the Uzumaki were capable of handling it and thus didn’t need the presence of the clan head or his strongest general, Hashirama. They might send Tobirama if they received any other messages, but that should be enough.

Breakfast was forgotten, and everybody just went to get ready for their day. But not even thirty minutes later, when they were all at the door putting on their sandals, another shinobi rushed in with a message from their cousins. And this time it was really bad. The Uzumaki were finally able to identify their attackers and it was worse than they could have possibly imagined. Enemies were coming from the four doors leaving no way to escape. All the clans of the whirlpools were represented, some of the strongest shinobi clans of the Land of lightning, and the Uchiha. Everybody was tense. Even if the Uzumaki could take down their compatriots and even the Lightning shinobi, they wouldn’t be able to hold back the Uchiha. They weren’t that good. Especially when the letter clearly stated that Uchiha Mdara and his siblings were also a part of the attack, under the leadership of Tajima.

Hashirama didn’t miss the look his brothers gave him when his friend’s name was mentioned, but he didn’t say anything. He was too worried to talk. He knew that Tajima being there personally, with Madara’s squad too, meant that things were more serious than expected. They needed to rush there fast. His father seemed to have reached the same conclusion as him because he was already barking orders at everyone they met on their way to the administrative building. Just when they reached Butsuma’s office, another message came and this time it was a disaster: The Uzumaki clan head had been killed by Uchiha Tajima. They were now without a leader and most of their shinobi had been slaughtered. The letter had been written hastily by the clan’s second in command and he only asked them to rush to save the women and children. He already knew that the Uzumaki clan was gone.

Preparation only took an hour before they set off for the Uzumaki compound. But they were late. Even if they didn’t take breaks, even if they had ran at twice the normal speed and arrived in record time, they were still too late. They were greeted by the sight of the slaughtered guards at the door, and the further they went the more bodies and blood they found. The usually lively compound was deserted, with not a living soul in sight. Some of the younger shinobi with them even barfed at the sight of murdered kids. They had come through the east gate and the further they went the more colors started leaving the faces of even their strongest shinobi. Once in the middle square, they found the body of the Uzumaki clan head hanged high for everybody to see. Hashirama rushed first to get it down. He couldn’t let his great uncle in such a humiliating position any longer. His brothers were behind him, and the three of them surrounded the corpse, with tears already running down Itama’s face. The other two didn’t cry. Maybe they had run out of tears, maybe they didn’t have Itama’s bravery, because a shinobi who let his emotions show whenever he felt like it was braver than the ones who kept everything bottled up to save face. Their father was a few feet away shaking with rage. The shinobi had gone to look for any survivors. If there was any, they were probably the secret safe houses that nobody, not even their cousins, knew about so it would take time to locate them.

After covering the body of their great uncle, and leaving Butsuma alone with him to give him the opportunity to mourn in private, Hashirama , his brothers and Touka started walking around the streets. The safe houses weren’t located yet, probably hidden underneath thousands of seals. They went to look for clues themselves. Their feet took them to the south side of the compounds, and to their horror they started recognizing some of the traces left by the fights. This was probably the side that the Uchiha had taken care of. The burns left by the characteristic Katon jutsus, the scratches left by Madara’s gunbai and Izuna’s dual wielding style, and even a big hole in a wall that only the freakishly strong Izumi could make. Those were all things they were awfully familiar with and able to spot as clear as the sun in the sky.

Hashirama’s heart was beating loudly. His friend had done this. The friend he used to sit and talk with about peace and keeping children safe had participated in this. Hashirama wasn’t stupid or nearly as naïve as he liked to let on, he knew that it wasn’t personal. He knew that Madara was just like him, a high ranking general but still under the orders of a ruthless clan head. But his heart was burning in his chest. The Uzumaki were close family, and now the Uchiha had participated in their cold blooded murder. They had exchanged human lives for ink on paper. Did this mean that Madara had changed? Did this mean that Izumi had changed too?

When Madara had cut their friendship, he had despaired. He didn’t know what to do with all their hopes and dreams. But after that talk with Izumi by the river, he had found a new resolve. He had decided to carry on, to work harder and become stronger because he knew that someone out there was working towards the same thing as him. He would do everything in his power to keep his promise. And it was hard. It was really hard to smile again after a younger cousin died on the battlefield before he completed double digits. It was hard to keep hope when all those he had shared his dreams with called him naïve and even crazy. It was hard not to become paranoid and distrustful when all most every day he had to wake up knowing that it might be the last time he saw one of his brothers. But he did it anyway. He smiled so much everybody called him a fool. He kept talking about his dreams until even the skeptical Tobirama had promised to help him in achieving them, and the rest of the younger members of the clan were following him and hoping with him. And he gained confidence again every time they faced Madara’s squad and he noticed that, like their Senju counterparts, they were only halfheartedly fighting. He knew that his friend had something to do with it, even if the Uchiha kept sending scorching fires at him one after the other. It was like an unspoken agreement between the eight of them, like if they just were putting on a show for the rest of their respective clans, until the day they could make all this mascaraed stop.

But looking at the destruction surrounding them, he started having doubts. What if it was all his wishful thinking? What if Madara and Izumi had given up and were fighting them for real? What if he was putting his family in danger by trusting like this? How to know what was going on in their heads? If he was in their place, would he have given them a warning of some sort the last time they fought merely a week ago? He didn’t know.

Suddenly, a door was flung open and a mass of red hair run towards him and into his arms crying: “Hashirama ni-san! You’re finally here! It so horrible! Please you have to help us, ni-san! We are in a nightmare!”. He didn’t panic because he knew that Tobirama would have warned him about any enemy chakra signature, and he had already recognized who it was. His young cousin Mito, a sweet fourteen years old girl with one hell of temper that he always liked to tease. But rights now her face was bathed in tears and the usually bright eyes with a green rhombus between them were looking at him with a despairing expression. He hugged her tighter, whispering the few comforting words he could think of again and again. Her mother had come out of their hiding place and was standing next to them too, eyes full of tears and expression desolated. Once Mito calmed down a bit, he put a hand on her shoulder trying to push her a little to check for injuries, but she winced and fell to the ground. Itama was by her side in the next second. His youngest brother was easily one of their best doctors, a profession he had chosen because he was too traumatized to come to the battlefield as a regular shinobi after his near death experience. Hashirama also suspected that it was because he greatly admired Uchiha Izumi who was hailed as the best medic-nin alive, and had saved his life once. Itama did a fast checkup and paled a bit: “ Her ribcage is all fractured, by some sort of miracle no bone was broken or out of place, but the damage is severe and will take a while to heal. I suggest you stop moving around too much or applying pressure, and I will prescribe some pain killers for you.”

Mito nodded painfully, but then her eyes shone with hatred and she fixed the ground while spitting: “ I swear I’m going to make her pay. I will make all of them pay. She should have made sure to kill me before leaving, because I will not rest until I get my revenge.”. Hashirama felt his heart sour when he heard his usually sweet cousin such things. Revenge, again and again, this word kept coming, an endless cycle of pain and hatred. And deep in heart he knew that somehow he felt even worse because he knew who she was talking about. There was no calming the doubts in his mind , or trying to deny the identity of Mito’s wanna be murderer, because Itama’s next word said it all: “Yeah, I think I know who you are talking about. These types of wounds could have only been caused by Uchiha Izumi’s technique. I have seen it on countless of our soldiers. But you shouldn’t be that hateful you know, she went easy on you because these types of punches are not meant to ki…..”. Before he could finish his assessment, Mito’s mother angrily continued: “ She went easy on her because she thought Mito was weak and wouldn’t survive even that punch. But she was wrong, and Mito here will one day lead our revenge on the Uchiha.” . Itama seemed to want to add something but a glare from their distraught aunt shut him up. He wasn’t really a confrontation kind of person. Hashirama made a mental note to ask him what he wanted to say later. He would never let his baby brother feel unheard.

In the meantime, Tobirama and Touka took charge of things, because they were great with logistics. Mito and her mother pointed them to the location of the safe houses and told them how to unseal them from the outside. Hashirama took some shinobi with him and headed there with Itama, because they will probably need a medic, and the two Uzumaki women were lead to Butsuma to discuss what will happen next. They only found around a dozen women and two dozen kids with an elder per safe house, with the biggest numbers in the south districts safe house. However most of the kids there were under genjutsu for hours and Itama had needed the help of two other medics before they woke them all up. Uchiha Hikaku’s signature was all over it. Hashirama didn’t know which was worst, the nightmares they were in on the ones they woke up to. Touka pointed out that at least Hikaku had some humanity in him because the illusions he had created weren’t too strong or mind destructive. She knew what the man was capable of, and this was a far cry from it.

In the end most of the Uzumaki refugees chose to accept Butsuma’s offer to just join them, but some had family in other clans and decided it would be better to stay with them. They all left the Land of the Whirlpools with heavy hearts, knowing fully that the prestigious Uzumaki Clan was gone for good.

Once they made sure that the small district Hashirama had built for the Uzumaki with his Mokuton was to their liking, they started working on their next move together. The Senju and the Uzumaki were out for blood. They had made sure to stop by some of the shinobi clans of the Whirlpools who had participated to teach them a lesson. Hashirama had forbidden the killing of any woman, child or elderly, but the rest were gone pretty savagely. An eye for an eye. Butsuma decided that their revenge against the people of the Land of Lightning could wait until summer, when they would fight them anyway, because his primary target was the Uchiha clan. He had decided to use this as an excuse and assemble an alliance of the shinobi clans to do the same thing they did to them, with the daimyo’s blessing. But they were a step to late. Hashirama had to admit that his father’s rival had outwitted them this time. He clearly had planned everything in advance. Tajima had distributed copies of the Uzumaki secrets to all the people he knew would be interested, therefor putting them either on his side or at least in a neutral place. No one was willing to join them, not even the usually righteous samurai. The daimyo had even offered “generously” to choose them for the campaign he was planning to take over the Land of the Whirlpools. The Uzumaki were distraught when they learned that they wouldn’t even be able to sell their knowledge anymore, the Senju were disgusted by the happenings, and his father was so angry that Hashirama had to rebuild the whole west wing of their house by the time he was done venting.

Only Hashirama had secretly sighed in relief at the knowledge that there wouldn’t be any more blood baths than the ones customary for the season. The doubts were eating at him and he was also angry at what had happened to his cousins, but some naïve part of him still hoped. It hoped that this didn’t mean that his dreams were too foolish. He didn’t miss the sorry looks his brothers and close confidents were throwing him. They clearly had no hope anymore. They thought that this was the final straw that would break the camel’s back. That he would drop his one sided friendship with Madara now. But he would still wait. Just for a small sign that it wasn’t over.

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The Uzumaki’s work was exceptional. Truth be told, Izumi too used to think that they were a bunch of uppity, haughty and snooty bastards and that in a way, they had it coming. But looking at all the work they had been doing maybe they had a reason to be. They had a seal for almost everything. Transporting objects, keeping food unspoiled, scrolls that absorb jutsu and send them back, the list went on and on. But what Izumi was most intrigued about was the seals that related to chakra. The Uzumaki, like their cousins, were notorious for their huge chakra reserves. But, unlike the Senju, a lot of them struggled to contain it, and use it in a proper efficient way. They found a way around this problem by using seals they directly apposed on their own bodies. Most of them were either to stabilize the chakra or to help get rid of the excess if they couldn’t manage it. Izumi remembered that the red head she had saved had a green rhombus between her eyebrows. According to the scrolls they had, the green color signified that it was a seal to get rid of excess chakra. If the girl needed something like that, then maybe she wasn’t as useless as Izumi initially thought. Maybe she survived.

But that wasn’t what was most important to Izumi. She had spent a great amount of time and effort studying these types of seals hoping to be able to come up with one that suited her needs. She was still struggling with her limited chakra reserves. It wasn’t a big deal, because she had adapted most of her techniques to her capacities over the years. But you never know what can happen or what you might need, and so she decided to try and find a way around her problem. It wasn’t easy, but after a few weeks’ worth of research, she designed something that looked like it could work. At first, she tried it on rabbits. The process was simple: After a few hand signs, she started injecting one point with increasing quantities of chakra, and after a few days she came back to retrieve it and make sure that it was all still there. In theory, the seal could store infinite amounts of chakra, and give them back whenever she needed them. She thought about it when she realized that whenever her reserves were full her body just stopped making chakra, which was a huge waste of time. Now, whenever her cells weren’t busy filling her reserves, they could be working on the seal. The scrolls had made it clear that the best point to use these types of seals was between the eyebrows, as close as possible to the brain. All that was left was prepare the seal. Using a mirror and through three days of peaceful meditation and staring at a mark she had made between her eyebrows to make sure all the chakra went to the same point, she finally started getting some results. Even with her great chakra control, concentrating all your body’s worth of chakra in one small point for a long period of time was no easy task, and she almost fainted three times, out of exhaustion. On the third day, a red rhombus started forming on her forehead. It was still faded, but it was all the foundation she needed. She was sure that now the unused chakra in her body knew where to go, like if it was sucked to a black hole on her forehead. She went back to her daily routine, meditating whenever she could, and in the beginning of summer the color of the rhombus was gorgeous red that contrasted beautifully with her pale skin and black eyes and hair. People asked about her new fashion statement, but she never said anything. The seal was still experimental, and it required such a skill in chakra control that it might just as well be classified as a forbidden technique.

The results of the Uzumaki’s downfall weren’t limited to that. All the clans, with their newly acquired knowledge, started working on ways to make their own seals. However not everybody was built for such a job, and so a lot of people started giving up halfway. The two clans who had managed to keep things going the most were the Senju , with the help of the Uzumaki refugees, and the Uchiha, with the help of their Sharingan and new scientific methods curtsy of Izumi’s influence. At first the Senju tried to keep the old practices going. Not out of greed, everybody knew that, but as I way of keeping some face for their cousins and giving them a way to earn their living. But the Uchiha had a fun time replicating the less complex and more useful seals and flooding the market with them at less than a quarter of their initial price. Obviously, the people, who preferred to buy instead of making their own, bought from the Uchiha. Especially when they didn’t put their clan crest on anything and let some civilian outsiders handle the transactions for them, giving even the Senju allied clans an opportunity to buy from them without being busted. The Uzumaki finally came down of their self-built pedestal and decided to match the Uchiha prices, that weren’t really that bad and left them a nice profit margin.

Madara then decided that there was no need to keep kicking them while they were down, and refused to lower the prices once again. It may have had something to do with the fact that his former friend, Senju Hashirama, took the chance that one of their battles gave them, and angrily expressed his dissatisfaction. Everybody, especially them, his supposed enemies, knew that Hashirma was a cheerful and humble guy who seldom raised his voice for anything other than to naively speak about his hopes and dreams. So for him to actually get mad about something, it meant that maybe they had let Tajima go too far this time. Madara would never admit to it, and his squad who witnessed the whole thing never brought it up, but even if he said that Hashirama meant nothing to him, he was a bit scared of losing his partner in crime for real.

After that incident their battles went back to the usual. It always ended in a draw between all involved parties. First, the weak would be weeded out in a blood bath, and then the usual pairs always found each other. Somewhere along the line, the Senju had figured out that it was better to let Hikaku and Touka fight each other, while Izumi and Itama didn’t even fight. All the clans had started copying their model of having especially trained medics go around the battle field to help, and so both of them were always too busy to care about each other. Izuna and Tobirama were always at it with the colorful language, Touka and Hikaku had both managed to simultaneously trap each other in genjustsu multiple times, and sometimes both just stood there unmoving with drool coming out of their mouths, until one of their medics made them snap out of it. And Hashirama and Madara were as fiercely competing as always but so far nobody died and they both just went home with broken ribs and blood everywhere.

They were all especially tense when in the middle of August the daimyo sent a ceasefire order to all shinobi clans. The daimyo’s authority in the shinobi world was a fickle matter. He was in name the ruler of the country, and for the most part all civilian related matters were under his jurisdiction. But the shinobi clans had a special system. They were the country’s military power and thus enjoyed a certain status, with some of them like the Hyuga, Uchiha and Senju being even considered noble clans. But in reality they were like small sovereign nations with their own economy, rules and leaders, so they threatened his existence a little bit. They had reached a compromise where the shinobi clans would obey him in exchange for some privileges like tax exemptions and land ownership, and mainly because the leaders of the clans had no interest in overthrowing his power. Sometimes they even used him as a referee in their fights, like the Senju had tried to do.

The ceasefire order came this time because the daimyo finally had a male heir. They were planning on a month long celebration and because they believed in ill omens, they wanted to prevent any blood baths from occurring. So it was decided that all internal fighting had to be put on hold. The shinobi clan heads had all sighed in exasperation at the daimyos antics, because they knew that it was only the beginning, but obeyed anyway. Aside from the shinobi guarding the borders and the ones in local missions, everybody was granted a small vacation and they were actually able to enjoy some of their summer days.

Sure enough the daimyo continued down his crazy path and actually sent invitations to the clan heads and their close families to attend the banquets and celebrations for two weeks. He was perfectly aware that Senju Butsuma and Uchiha Tajima would end up trying to use the chopsticks as weapons to gut each other, and thus he included his hopes for a peaceful visit along with a few expensive gifts to shut them both up. The Senju being invited was a normal thing; after all, they were invited for the previous celebrations when the daimyo’s two daughters were born because they had a good relationship with him. The Uchiha however were usually snubbed. But this year their recent economic boom had intrigued the daimyo and thus the invitation. Rumor had it that it was because all his concubines had fallen in love with the products of their high end shop in the capital, and that he was looking for a discount.

The people invited to the court events were Tajima and his two sons and one daughter, but they had also managed to drag along Hikaku and Yuki, as well as Tajima’s second in command and best friend. The three would visit the capital with them and wait for them in the special guest house they were given later. All the clans brought tag-alongs with them, so it wasn’t weird.

The housing was provided by the daimyo along with some servants to help the ladies dress up and take care of the guest house. The food would be delivered at every meal from the palace’s kitchen, and so all they had to bring with them were their clothes. Izumi never failed to remind the males that if it wasn’t for her insistence, they wouldn’t have formal or casual clothes suited for a stay in the capital. She felt like dying, when they all said that their old patched up mantels could have been just as good. But nonetheless their haoris and hakamas looked quite elegant and each one wore it with a different air about them. Tajima was dignified. After the twins wrestled him down, passed a comb through his hair and tied it in a high ponytail, Madara actually showed a handsome face that suited a great general. And if Yuki’s and some of the capital’s girls reactions after seeing him were a good tell, the ladies liked the haughty inaccessible expression on his now visible face. And of course, the playboy in making of their group didn’t need any help in that department. Izuna never failed to turn a few heads, and he enjoyed giving attention as much as he enjoyed receiving it. He was almost as vain as Izumi was. She had brought as many clothes as the three boys combined, and all through her stay she liked to change from gorgeous kimono to another, rarely wearing the same thing for two banquets or tea parties in a row, except for her Uchiha crest shaped obidome that never left her. The wives of the nobles of the capital ended up ordering some of the designs she wore and she had to send the seamstress of the clan an early get to work notice.

This wasn’t the siblings first time in the capital, as they had come multiple times for missions and for the opening of their shop. And it wasn’t even Madara’s first time in court because he came every year with his father to receive the official mission order. But it was Yuki’s first, and after a round of teasing and a bit of rest, they decided to give her a proper visit.

After they got dresses in casual clothes that highlighted their clan’s crest, to make who they were known, they first stopped by the guest house the Hyuga were staying in. Izuna felt like dragging his friend, the Hyuga heir, Kitai with them. Kitai was their age and ,like every member of his clan, had large pupil less faded purple eyes, long black hair and an aura of dignity that Izuna liked to peel away whenever he could. He was a bit introverted and didn’t seem very close to his other cousins, and so he seemed to enjoy Izuna’s company even if the latter’s every other sentence made him blush. He had almost fainted once when Izuna suggested he use his byakugan to spy on a ladies only bath. The rest of their group enjoyed his company too, and so after leaving Tajima and his second in command in Kitai’s father’s care, they made their way to the Uchiha shop. Hikaku , Yuki and Kitai had never seen it and were quite curious about what exactly was driving the noblewomen so crazy that they had started sending their servants to queue up from the early hours of the morning.

Lady Fate seemed to be a real bitch because, just as they were walking down the busy street where the shop was, they spotted a familiar group of people. Senju Hashirama was pointing excitedly at the direction they were headed towards, while Senju Tobirama looked like he had just swallowed a fly and was tightly gripping his older brother’s arm trying to drag him in the opposite direction. Senju Itama was standing next to them, trying to pick a side, and a red head was next to him, glaring at Hashirama the same way Tobirama was, with her hands on her hips. They looked like they had finally managed to convince Hashirama to drop whatever he was excited about, when his shoulders slumped and he started reluctantly following his brother. The Uchiha group hadn’t decided whether or not to make a tactical retreat yet, when the Senju all seemed to feel their chakra and turn to look at them. While the other three scowled, Hashirama’s face brightened after a moment of hesitation and he wildly waved in their direction while screaming: “Madara! So good to see you here! We were just going to see…..”. He couldn’t finish his sentence because Tobirama’s hand clamped on his mouth and he finished for him: “We were just heading back to the guest house. That’s what you were going to say. Right, anija?” . Tobirama’s glare was enough to make him swallow the rest of his original sentence.

Izumi laughed internally. She had watched Hashirama grow from a naïve boisterous kid to an equally naïve and boisterous teenager, and she had to admit that she liked his personality a lot. He was like a ray of sunshine that warmed everybody’s heart, and case and point he had wormed his way into Madara’s. In their early confrontations, he had continued to act like Madara was just his sparring partner, and even tried to start conversions with him when their fathers were out of reach. But the weight of the years, the scolding he had probably received from his father and brother and Madara’s act of not acknowledging him slowly dimed that cheerfulness. He still insisted on giving them a smile before every battle, and sometimes when she was helping a shinobi with no way to defend herself and he would pass her by, he just acted like he didn’t see her and went to find his next opponent. Sometimes when ceasefires where negotiated and they met on missions, he still kept his cheerfulness that despaired Tobirama and Touka and left Itama with a slightly worried expression. Madara either ignored him or scolded him for his naivete, depending on his mood, but the actions of the Senju heir had the benefit of softening Hikaku’s and Izuna’s skepticism a little bit.

Izumi had a feeling that his actions held another meaning, that he was looking for a particular response from them, but so far none of them were able to crack his code. And after the whole Uzumaki debacle, she clearly saw that his actions were forced and not as sincere. There was always a moment of hesitation before them. She started to think that once again her prophecies were becoming true, and that Senju Hashirama was slowly losing fate in his dreams because he didn’t have the mental support her adult-self provided Madara with. She couldn’t really blame him though. He was just a dreamer, a kid with virtually no support. He held on as much as he could, but even if he was still fighting, it was clear that he was reaching the end of the rope. She hoped to able to help him before it was too late, but her loyalty laid with the Uchiha first, and in the current state of things , she had no way to reach out to him.

Still it was funny that he clearly wanted to go take a look at the shop they were going to visit, despite it being owned by his supposed rival. She was about to try and use this occasion to work on some diplomacy when she noticed something. The red head of the Senju group was glaring at her hatefully. Especially at the red rhombus that was clearly visible between her eyes. The girl had one of her own, but hers was green. Before she could say anything, the red head pointed an accusing finger at her and shouted for the whole street to hear:

“You thieving bitch! How dare you wear something you clearly stole proudly like that, in the middle of your forehead?” 


	12. Doubts part 2

“You thieving bitch! How dare you wear something you clearly stole proudly like that, in the middle of your forehead?”

The red head finished her loud shout and lunged on Izumi, trying to punch her square in the face. Except that a situation that involved nine other highly skilled shinobi couldn’t go as smoothly as she seemed to think it would. Izumi’s brothers and friends knew that she didn’t need their protection, so they didn’t make a move and just watched as one of her hands grabbed the fist coming for her and crushed it using her chakra enhanced strength. The red head didn’t even get a chance to howl from the pain because Izumi’s other hand had shot at the same time to cover her mouth with a grip so tight it sealed her mouth shut. She would definitely have finger shaped bruises on her cheeks after that.

The Senju brothers hadn’t had the time to stop their companion before she jumped, but as soon as they heard the sound of crushed bones, they tried to come and help her only to be stopped by Izumi’s companions. Madara stood in front of Hashirama, Izuna was blocking Tobirama’s way while giving him a deranged smile, Hikaku was glaring at Itama and Yuki stood protectively behind Madara ready to give him a hand if needed. Only Kitai stood to the side of the road. His status as the heir of the Hyuga clan prevented him from participating or even picking a side, but he was still glaring disapprovingly at the red head. The passersby on the street had all retreated to the side. They had all recognized the people involved in this fight thanks to their clan crests, but morbid curiosity prevented them from running to a safer place even when their self-preservation instincts were screaming at them.

The stare down lasted for a while. Everybody was holding their breath, but nobody wanted to be the one to make the first move. Despite her pain, the red head had tried to free herself, but Izumi was stronger and only needed a hundredth of her strength to keep her firmly in place in the same painful position. After staring at her for a while, Izumi finally knew why the girl seemed familiar. She was the same idiot she had saved back in the Uzumaki compound. Izumi wasn’t exactly expecting thank-yous , but at the very least she wasn’t expecting to get attacked in the middle of the capital in such a humiliating fashion. She wasn’t exactly a patient person to begin with, and years of associating with the Uchiha had won over a lot of the training she had received in her past life, so she decided to be the one to start: “ Just what exactly do you think you’re doing? I thought you were dumb before, but right now I’m starting to think that retarded is a more defining word.”

Hashirama who was still staring down Madara, tried to intervene: “ That’s my cousin Uzumaki Mito. I apologize for her behavior. Her wounds are still fresh and she didn’t think before acting. Uzumaki hot headedness and what not. Let’s just leave it at this. Let her go, and each group will be on its way. No need to make a scene.”. Izuna gave a loud snort from where he was facing Tobirama and answered him dryly: “So that bitch can just go around attacking people at random, because you say so. Nah treefucker, it doesn’t go that way. The other cowards may wiggle their tales at you, but not the Uchiha. She will be taught a lesson today. She picked the wrong girl to start a fight. Izumi will tear her to shreds, and we are going to make sure she gets all the time she needs to do so.”. Tobirama glared harder, if that was even possible, and answered him: “ That’s not what he meant, asshole, and you know it. Stop being an obnoxious shithead for once in your worthless life and back off.”. Izuna didn’t bother with answering him, and just adjusted his stance, ready to go into action.

Madara turned his head slightly to give her a questioning look. She knew what he meant. The choice was hers, if she backed out they would too, and if she didn’t he was ready to go all in for her. Izumi just sighed and looked at her captive once more, before saying loudly enough for everybody to hear: “ The Uzumaki having a reputation for being hot headed is not an excuse. If there is one thing that I hate in this world, it is people like you who only take note of their own pathetic wants and needs, without ever reading the situation. In case you forgot, we’re in the capital as guests of the daimyo. He already said no fighting, and you just ignored his orders. Some good Samaritans could say that you just don’t respect him. Even the heads of the clans obeyed the ceasefire order, but a girl like you, from a fallen clan with no legitimate status in the Land of Fire, dares to attack the princess of a noble shinobi clan. I’ve got to say, I don’t know if you’re a brave idiot or you just don’t care about the rest of the survivors of your clan and their future. And what’s worse is that you’re clearly here only because the Senju want to give their cousins some face, and yet you don’t care about the tight spot you’re putting them in by your actions. You don’t care about how the daimyo will think that the Senju are becoming so arrogant that they let a brat start a fight right under his nose. You don’t care about the damage we will probably cause the civilians who had nothing to with this. And you don’t even care about the lives of your cousins who you are putting at risk for no reason.”

By now everybody was looking at her while she gave her little speech. Her brothers, friends and even the Senju had dropped their fighting stances and were staring at her, surprised at her analyses of the situation. Kitai and the civilians where disapprovingly staring at Mito. And the realization of what she was doing finally downed on the girl, whose eyes widened even more. But Izumi had neither patience nor pity for her. A perfect occasion to work on their peace plans was ruined because of her, and the situation had even worsened. The politics in this world were already hard enough to navigate as is, no need to throw a pig team mate in the mix too. She tightened her hold on the broken hand a bit more, to let some of her frustration go away. Mito could only let a yelp because her mouth was still tightly gripped. Finally, Izumi just said: “Let me make this really easy for you to understand. I am Uchiha Izumi. I’m a really nice person in general, and a doctor who likes to save lives more than taking them. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t or won’t. The moment I looked at you, I had already come up with five different ways to kill you, each more painful than the last. You’re just lucky that I’m in a good mood today, and that I don’t want to dirty my pretty kimono nor cause a diplomatic incident. So here’s what we’re going to do. I am going to let you go, and without making another sound, you are going to go and hide behind one of your cousins. Make sure that I can’t see you because that will make me change my mind. And it gets really ugly when I let my blood thirst out. After that, my group and I will be on our way, and hopefully no other incident like this will happen in the next two weeks.”. She had activated her Sharingan to give her threatening tone more weight. And the girl who was the same height, and probably age, as Izuna was positively shaking.

After Izumi let her go, she rushed to hide behind Tobirama, who was the closest, whilst cupping her shattered fingers with tears in her eyes. Izumi’s group, Kitai included, had also heard her, and for once even Izuna just obeyed without questioning. They continued their way down the street towards the shop, shoulders still tense. When she passed by Hashirama, she gave him a look that probably looked angry with her Sharingan still active. And even she didn’t know what she meant by that look. The civilians just made way to let them pass without bumping into anyone, clearly wary of the tense shinobi. Although some of them gave her a bit of an approving and even grateful look. What was that about?

Izumi had thought that their little outing was ruined. Even when they got into the shop, they just silently browsed each to their own thought. The displays where all arranged in a modern way with Izumi’s help, which gave the shop a style that what was probably unique in the whole world. Their group wasn’t really interested in the cosmetics or clothes section because they had the same things for cheaper at home, and the Hyuga, as their close friends, had the same access. They directly went to the art section and walked between the elegantly arranged displays, their group still silent. Once they were far enough from the other visitors, Izuna couldn’t hold it in anymore and whispered for only them to hear: “ Five different ways? I only got three.”. Kitai, who was the closest to him piped in: “ I got four, but I have to use my Byakugan for two of them.”. Yuki was discouraged as she said: “ I only got two, and I’m still racking my brain for the third, but I don’t see how I could get past her body guards fast enough to do that.” Hikaku just snorted haughtily: “I only need one genjustsu to seal the deal. Quality over quantity!”. Madara just sighed: “ Could the lot of you stop plotting bloody murder? I’m trying to enjoy browsing through painted pots and lids, or whatever that is anyway.” Izumi turned to look back at her friends, Sharingan finally deactivated, and she couldn’t help but burst out laughing. The others immediately joined her. Truth be told, Izuna was really great at dissolving tense situations.

The rest of their stay in the capital was spent without any incidents. They were invited everywhere, and barely had the time to fit every noble in their schedule. They met with the Senju group multiple times, but only Butsuma and Tajima exchanged barbs. The Senju brothers were all hell bent on ignoring them, and even Hashirama was oddly silent whenever he was in their presence. Almost depressed. Not that they cared anyway, they were all still pretty pissed. The news of what had happened had spread like wild fire. Izumi’s every word and action was reported to the daimyo, his ministers and nobles. Apparently, she had said something that greatly pleased them, because they were especially warm to her and the Uchiha delegation in general, a first since the Uchiha didn’t really mingle with them like the Senju did. Tajima was so happy with her and the new contacts he had made, that he took her on a shopping spree in one of the capital’s best jewelry shops.

During the first official banquet held in court, the daimyo himself made a snide remark to Senju Butsuma about the incident, but he didn’t push it too far, because his relationship with the Senju was quite deep and he didn’t want to put his old friend in a tight spot. He even invited Hashirama, who they later learned was his favorite godson, to a late night gambling party he was throwing later, to show that they weren’t out of favor with him. While the Senju were doing great on the daimyo’s front, they didn’t have the advantage of a female clan member to represent them in the ladies seating area. An advantage Izumi milked for all its worth. Her past life came in handy once again, because she was a carefully trained socialite as part of her cover, so mingling with the noble ladies was nothing to her after receiving a crash course in court etiquette. As mentioned before, her kimonos were a huge hit and the ladies all ordered some models they were assured would be unique and not sold in the shop. Unlike some of the noble ladies, she didn’t fawn on the favorite concubines, and preferred the company of the daimyo’s slightly older wife. She was playing the long game, and she knew that concubines come and go, only the legal wife has a permanent, stable and influent position even if she didn’t have her husband’s ear as much as the others. After all, she was still the mother of the heir, and Madara had told her that even if the daimyo liked to surround himself with women, he was a man who put the rules of propriety above all else. The daimyo’s wife wasn’t that pretty, but she was born noble and raised for her position from birth. She was cunning, and knew that Izumi had ulterior motives in befriending her, but she was pleased that the Uchiha recognized her true value unlike a lot of the nobles, and befriended her all the same. From her, Izumi learned that Uzumaki Mito was initially invited to the banquet too, as a favor done to both the rest of her clan and to the Senju, but after their incident the daimyo had revoked the invitation to not offend Uchiha Tajima whose only daughter was greatly humiliated.

Izumi was invited by the daimyo’s wife to a lot of tea parties, and giving that they were at the same mental age, they developed a great friendship. Even after she left, they still exchanged letters regularly, and the Uchiha were now always on the list for any celebration at the palace. Madara wasn’t exactly a social butterfly, but he liked to discuss weaponry with some of the invited samurai, who enjoyed banquets as much as he did, and so they all formed a small group that always sat together with the minister of defense. Only Izuna was a huge hit on both sides. The ministers and nobles liked to hang out with him, because of his outgoing and slightly wild but still polite persona, and the ladies, especially the younger ones, liked to go and spy on him in the men’s section or interrogate Izumi thoroughly about his likes and dislikes. His handsome face coupled with a shinobi’s dangerous aura made him stand out from the regular pretty face scholars. Only Senju Hashirama enjoyed the same level of attention from the capital’s ladies. Gifts and love letters started being delivered to their house from the first day, along with invitation to “go take a walk in one of the gardens of the capital”. And judging by his slightly disheveled look whenever he went out alone for an hour or two, or on the two occasions she had caught him sneaking back in late at night, he was taking full advantage of the experience. Izumi was relieved that she had already had the Talk with him, even if he had tried to run away from the room all the time she was speaking. At least he knew how to be safe and was smart enough to keep himself from causing any huge scandal.

On their last day in the capital, the twins and Hikaku had finally managed to accomplish the mission they had brought Yuki with them for. After some careful planning, they had managed to trick Madara and Yuki into going on a picnic alone as a first date while the others spied on them with the help of Kitai’s Byakugan. Izumi would never push either of them into something they didn’t want, but Yuki had clearly not gotten over her childhood crush, and Madara liked her and her strong personality a lot, he just wasn’t a romantic guy. They both needed a bit of help to jump start their relationship. They were both as red as tomatoes when they first realized what was happening, but they went along with it anyway, and on their road back to the compound, everybody, even Tajima, had noticed that Madara was deliberately slowing down so that they could talk in private in the back of the group.

Autumn settled in quickly after they were back in the compound. Usually by this time, the battles stopped and the shinobi focused on completing more missions to stock up for the winter. But the Uzumaki’s slaughter was still fresh in the minds of the Senju, and they weren’t backing down in the slightest. Some of the Uzumaki women had joined their ranks, and even that Mito girl after a few weeks appeared on the battled field. She was clearly more calm and collected, and she fought bravely, but she was still left in the back as support only. Izumi knew that after the winter, she might have to face a strong opponent. A small part of her told her to get rid of the girl before she became too dangerous, but she shut it down quickly.

In the last few years, she had started to define herself more and make the rules she followed on her own. She was an Uchiha, but she was also a doctor. A doctor that once swore to do no harm, and yet did anyway. This life, she followed that oath. She had to, if she wanted to keep preaching to the others about peace and a better world. She took her role very seriously, always cheering Madara up and keeping him focused on his goals. Izuna was a tougher nut to crack, because of his distrust of the Senju that was taught to him since birth. She did her best to help him, Hikaku, and all the other youth that were in on their real goal, cut through the web of lies, hate and mistrust they were thrust into by their elders, and start thinking for themselves. So far a lot of the Uchiha had stopped seeing the rest of the world as their enemy, and were more accepting of the idea that peace can come through means other than obliterating all their enemies. Their new friendship with the Hyuga had helped them see that there was nothing wrong with opening yourself to the others, even if you don’t agree on everything with them. They were starting to get a taste for friendship and bonds outside the clan.

So on a cold autumn day, as she stood with the rest of her squad at the edge of the clearing where the final battle of the season will be held, she kept repeating the oath to herself. The Senju were facing them, clearly as tense as they were. Butsuma and Tajima gave the signal at the same time and rushed to meet each other first. She watched as her teammates tore through shinobi, making their way to their rivals who were doing the exact same thing. She didn’t go in with them because she was waiting with the rest of the medical team to spot the first wounded. Some of her subordinates started bolting towards different places and either giving emergency help on the spot or coming back empty handed, with blood on their hands. A body was flung a few meters from her and she went to take a look. An Uchiha who was still breathing. She got to work immediately. She was in the middle of stopping a heavy bleeding when she felt a small presence behind her. Turning around, she was met with the sight of a seven years old child in a Senju armor. He looked a lot like Touka, but had none of her presence. His hand, that was holding the sword he was trying to stab her with, was shaking, and once he met her Sharingan he froze, not knowing what to do next. Touka , who was apparently keeping an eye on him while facing Hikaku not very far from them, screamed at him: “ Kotaro, get the hell away from her! You’re no match, go back next to Mito.”.

She was a bit too late in her warning because Izumi noticed that Tajima second in command had seen them, and was coming to give her a hand with her small attacker. The asshole was from the faction that had no qualms about killing kids in a gruesome way, and the Uchiha had a rule that medic-nins must be kept protected as much as possible on the battlefield. He was coming towards the Kotaro kid with his huge hammer like sword, ready to shatter his head, and Touka had clearly seen that her supposed brother was surrounded by two menaces. She gave a tormented howl when a senbon lodged itself in the middle of the kid’s neck and he fell instantly next to Izumi, face into the ground, body motionless with a bit of blood trickling down his neck. Izumi gave Tajima’s second in command a small smile and a wave saying: “Thanks for trying to help, but I got it. There’s enough poison on that senbon to neutralize a grown man let alone him. Just leave him there, there’s no way they could find an antidote for that.” The older man gave her a heavy nod and bolted to find his next victim, and she just calmly went back to work on her patient.

Touka’s anguished cries kept coming as she had clearly heard what Izumi said. The rest of her team members brought their fights closer. The colors left their faces when they understood who the body next to her belonged to, but none of them could extract themselves long enough to come close to it, and even Itama was held back by Yuki. But they were clearly distraught. Tobirama’s anger made him make some pretty obvious mistakes, and if Izuna had any of his earlier dispositions left, he would have killed him more than four times by the time the retreat was ordered. Touka was in no shape to fight, and Itama was juggling both fighting Yuki and backing her up. The worst was Hashirama. He kept staring at the body of Kotaro and then at Izumi who was calmly working right next to it. As if she hadn’t done this. As if she hadn’t put a poison coated senbon in the neck of a child. Madara had landed a few good kicks, and if it wasn’t for the Senju’s freakish healing abilities, he would already be dead.

Clearly the state of their main squad was affecting the rest of the Senju troops, because they had lost the fire that was animating them in the beginning. They were forced back to the edge of the clearing away from where Izumi had just finished her job. When the retreat signal was given, Izumi barely managed to spot which place their rivals chose to take off from. Touka in tears looked like she wanted to comeback for the body of her brother, but the rest of her squad kept pushing her away, knowing that it was too dangerous to go in the middle of the Uchiha troupes. Izumi’s squad came looking for her. They were going back too, the cleanup and collecting the wounded who had been treated was always left to lesser ranked shinobi. When she knew that no one else was able to see or hear her, she summoned Takai and picked the body of the Kotaro kid. Madara raised an eyebrow at her. She just chuckled and told him: “You guys wait for me somewhere in the forest. I don’t want Tajima to get suspicious if we don’t all come back in the same time. I will be quick.”. Madara just nodded as he helped her mount Takai and settle the other motionless body. He asked anyway: “You’re sure you don’t want back up? They seemed pretty pissed at you. They will attack you”. She just grinned at him before taking off: “Nah, I’m good. Just dropping off a package.”. And with that Takai took off.

Izumi pointed him towards the place where she suspected the Senju squad was, and they flew over a large perimeter before they could locate them. They had separated from the rest of their clan, and were still in the middle of the forest. Touka was sitting on a tree stump crying in her hands. Itama had a comforting hand on her shoulder. Hashirama was leaning on a tree trunk not too far away, eyes unfocused. And the forever angry Tobirama had his arms crossed in front of him, glaring at anything that caught his attention.

The freakish sensor had to be the first want to notice her presence on Takai, because faster than she could blink, he got out a kunai and threw it in their direction. He would have hit if Izumi wasn’t prepared, and had already cloaked Takai with Raiton Chakra to enhance his speed. All the others attention was immediately on her as Takai slowly lowered to the ground. Before they reached it however, Tobirama was already preparing a Suiton jutsu, and Izumi felt a slight disturbance in her chakra. She shouted at them: “Seriously, enough with the genjutsu Touka. We already established that it doesn’t work on me. And you, frowny-face, before you try to murder me again, use your ability to clearly sound the environment. You’ll get why I am here.”

And with that Takai landed safely. Touka was immediately on her feet trying to jump her, but Hashirama was quicker and he stopped her dead in her track with one of his branches, while protectively standing in front of his group, facing her with a look full of anger, hate, and mostly disappointment. He said: “What do you want Uchiha? Haven’t you already done enough?”

Izumi just gave him the sugary smile she used when displeased: “ That look really doesn’t suit you. I much prefer dealing with starry eyed Hashirama.”. This time it was Touka’s turn to hatefully spit: “ You bitch! How dare you come to us after what you have done and smile at us like that! Just you wait, I will rip that smirk of your face, even if it is the last thing I do!”

To everybody’s surprise, it was Tobirama who interjected: “ Anija, Touka-san, you might want to pace yourselves. I think we go it all wrong.”. Izumi smirked sarcastically at him: “ You think? Well, at least one of you is actually good at something, even if I had to give him pointers first.”

While the rest were frowning, Takai lowered himself a bit more, and they were finally able to spot the small body still laying on him. Touka gasped and her tears started overflowing again. Hashirama just frowned: “You came to give us his body? How kind and generous of you!”. Izumi paid him no mind as she slid the body to her embrace, put his feet on the ground, and adjusted him in a standing position held by one her hands, while the other went to carefully dislodge the senbon from his neck, making sure not to puncture anything that shouldn’t be. Once she was done, she checked the boy’s vital signs while saying: “The anesthetic should ware off in around six hours. It’s pretty strong stuff, so his heartbeat will be shallow for the next three hours, and he might be disoriented at first when he wakes up. Keep him hydrated, well fed and warm, and he should be in good shape in not time.” And with that she pushed the still asleep kid towards his sister who rushed to catch him, her expression as confused as the rest of her team. Itama came to check, while Hashirma just stared at her: “What?”

She just shrugged: “ The doctor heard me loud and clear, so I won’t repeat myself. It’s pretty standard procedure.”

Tobirama was more to the point than his brother: “Why?”. Again with a shrug and a tired look: “ I already told your brother once: He’s just a kid in a world run by stupid adults, he shouldn’t have to pay for it with his life. Although, this one particular kid seems to be pretty stupid himself. Somebody should teach him to pick opponents his size, not everybody is as nice as me. And also Madara would be pretty pissed at me if I had let him die under my watch.” Hashirama was still pretty shaken by everything that had transpired, but she trusted that he had gotten the message not well hidden in her words: We are still working on that dream with you, so don’t give up.

She mounted Takai once again and before departing, she said: “Oh and do me a favor, I was never here. The story is: you went back for the body, found him still alive, and Itama had a stroke of genius and found the cure on the spot. Do you understand?” She had directed her question at Tobirma, who she knew was the smartest and most efficient of the group. Once she received his nod, Takai didn’t need a signal to fly away.

Once they were high in the sky, Takai said: “ You know you’re the weirdest human I’ve ever met, right?”. She chuckled: “Because you meet a lot of humans where you live?”. His response was to take a sudden dive that almost threw her off. She just laughed and the two of them continued talking on their way back to her squad.

In the forest, Touka was still crying while holding the body of her brother. But this time they were tears of joy. Itama had assured all of them that it was true, that Kotaro was unharmed and just sleeping. Tobirama was the first to speak: “ Well, that was unexpected. I still can’t believe that an Uchiha would help us in such a fashion.”

Hashirama was about to scold him, when Itama spoke up: “ Unexpected, yes, but not unbelievable. In my work at the clinic I became familiar with her style. You know, she rarely kills anyone, and never people under the age of eighteen. Her punches shatter bones and cripple, sometimes for life, but they rarely are meant to kill. I’ve wanted to say something before, but aunt’s glare shut me up. Even when she faced Mito, she spared her life intentionally. I even felt residues of medical chakra with Izumi signature when I examined her.”

Tobirama’s eyebrows rose higher, while Hashirama’s smile only got bigger. He made a mental note of straightening things out with his aunt and Mito later, but for now he was just happy. This was his sign, the sign that he was looking for all this time. The sign that they still all shared a dream, and that he wasn’t working on changing his clan for nothing. The sign that they still had fighting chance, even after all the blood, sweat and tears. He felt reinvigorated, stronger than he had ever been before. Determination shone through his eyes as he looked at his team and excitedly told them: “ Let’s go! They are still waiting for us back in the compound. And we have a lot of things to do. From now on, no one rests. We need to work harder to achieve peace faster, and build our dream village.”

Tobirama felt a head ache coming. He knew his brother was back to his naïve attitude and wouldn’t let any of them off the hook. But this time, something in him told him that maybe he wasn’t as naïve as he initially thought. Maybe the Uchiha had some good in them. Despite the curse of hatred that plagued them. He put a hand on his brother’s shoulder and said: “Anija, why don’t we settle on bringing back Kotaro and resting for the rest of today. You can go back to harassing people with your hopes and dreams starting tomorrow.” Hashirama pouted a little bit at his brother’s choice of words, but he let it slide. Tomorrow would be a new day.

As they run back to the compound, he couldn’t help but smile as the image of a certain someone’s slightly mocking yet reassuring smile, and her beautiful deep black eyes, kept popping into his head.


	13. In the Land of Iron

“We can’t keep running like this. We have to start looking for a shelter, or we will be buried in the snow storm. And if that happens, there will be no wedding, instead of just a slightly delayed one.”, argued Izuna for the tenth time since they set off from the Land of Iron. The only difference was that Izumi agreed with him this time. When they first departed, she also believed that if they rushed they could make it in time despite the bad weather, but now, they were barely able to walk, let alone run. It was too dangerous.

A twenty two years old Madara was starting to lose hope too, because he gave a resigned sigh and said: “When we were coming I noticed a small cave around twenty minutes from here. We can set up camp there, and wait for the storm to pass. And, if you don’t wipe that smirk of your face right now, my dear ototou, I swear that I will make you sleep outside!”

Izuna just burst out laughing and said: “ I am sorry ni-san, I can’t help it. I will officially be smirking and cackling for at least six other months. Everybody was worried about me, and yet you’re the one with the shotgun wedding. Our perfect heir! Even you have to admit that this is funny.”. In the back of the group Izumi and Hikaku were doing a poor job of hiding the small shakes of their shoulders caused by their laughs. Izuna had a point, the situation was too funny.

At nineteen years old, Izuna was the playboy extraordinaire of their group. Of the whole Uchiha clan if we are being honest. Of course this brought on him a lot of trouble, from Tajima’s disapproving glares whenever he came home in early morning or was still nursing a hangover somewhere around noon, to the now classic scenes of one of his conquest catching him the very next day with another. The biggest thing his siblings worried about was some unplanned pregnancy. Izuna would of course own up to it, but they knew that it would make him miserable because he wasn’t ready to be a father and leave his single life behind. So Izumi had done her best in advising him about ways to avoid pregnancy and even created some drugs that always seemed to sell out in the clan’s pharmacy these days. Condoms were a luxury she couldn’t provide, so the Uchiha girls had only had that to avoid problems. 

On the other hand Madara, up until a couple of months ago, had the reputation of a saint. To the elders and the older members of the clan as well as his father, he was the guardian of morality, the face of what a true clan heir should be, a model of following the right way. He didn’t drink a lot or smoke like his sister, and was in a loving relationship with the sweet Yuki for four years. The word around the clan was they had both decided to wait until Yuki was old enough to get married. Which was bound to happen very soon, because she was twenty this year, two years after she became officially an adult, and the right time to get married and start a family by this world’s standards.

Imagine their faces, when around a month after Yuki’s twentieth birthday, she came to Izumi’s office complaining of migraines and a constant desire to vomit in the morning. Both Madara and she became blushing and blubbering messes when Izumi sat them down that night in a booth of the bar she co-owned with Izuna, and told them the good news. From their incoherent speech, she understood that they had wanted to celebrate the birthday properly and felt too shy to ask her about contraception, so they risked it anyway after some bad math done by Yuki. Nonetheless, after the initial shock wore off, they were extremely happy, and Madara proposed immediately. The night ended with a beet red Yuki and a very drunk Madara, from all the toasts given by the other patrons of the bar, having to listen to a very long lesson about safe sex and precautions to take during pregnancy, given by a very excited future aunt.

They were in the middle of December, so the whole clan understood immediately when Madara insisted that they had to get married in a matter of weeks, instead of waiting until summer. The Uchiha liked summer weddings because they can hold outdoor celebrations, and invite more people. Especially when the groom was the clan’s heir. But everybody was excited at the idea of a baby in the main house, especially Tajima, so they let it slide.

This was also due to the changes in the Uchiha clan. If we forget about their blooming economy, and quickly growing industrialization, the biggest change was in their social lives. As a clan, they became more open to the world. First through their merchants and bit by bit, they started reaching out to other clans, even if they weren’t officially allies, and even the nobles and daimyo. Because they were closed off to the rest of the world before Izumi, they were perceived as snobbish and treated in consequence, which in turn made them feel persecuted and pushed to a corner. It had been hard on them, especially the elders’ council, when they had to admit that maybe they were in the wrong, and that they had to start making amends. But under Madara’s and Izumi’s careful supervision, they did it anyway.

Their biggest allies became the Hyuga. Once both clan’s got past their childish rivalry, they realized how much they had in common, from their special eyes to their general introversion, and started working together. Now both clans shared regular visits and worked together on missions, with the Hyuga being the official guardians of the Uchiha’s mines, since their compound was closer. They took that trust really seriously and always assigned more men than actually needed.

The Uchiha also struck up friendships with other clans like the Hatake and the Aburame. It was a really nice change from their regular companions. Up until then, they only had deep relationships with the Hagoromo and the Kaguya, both bloodthirsty clans that only saw life as a constant battlefield and refused to change. And their reputation greatly affected the Uchiha too, who were often put in the same basket.

Slowly, other clans started seeing them in a new light, and forgetting some of the prejudices they held against them. They couldn’t exactly cut their relationships with the Kaguya because they were cousins after all. The Uchiha valued family, and their cousins relied on them for a lot of things, so they were always respectful and minded their own business anyway. But after the Hagoromo leader had thrown one too many tantrums, insulting the changes they were operating and calling them sellouts, Madara unceremoniously told him that the Uchiha no longer wanted to be associated with them and kicked him once and for all from their compound. Tajima was greatly dissatisfied with the fact that his heir didn’t even consult him, but he couldn’t do much about it. Madara, by that point, controlled everything in the clan, and Tajima was a mere figure head. He was just dragging out his retirement as much as he could.

On the more individual level, the clan had started changing too. With a liberal modern women like Izumi in such a high profile position, changes were bound to happen. The moment she hit seventeen in this world, she decided that she had been a proper role model for the kids long enough, and changed a few things about herself. Or a more appropriate way of describing it would be to say that she went back to her old self. This body had almost the exact same features as her old ones, and so she enjoyed going back to the old style that she had spent years perfecting. She stopped with the bangs, and started parting her long hair in the middle to show her flawless pale skin and showcase her black eyes and slender eyebrows. Her slightly wavy hair was always in a sloppy ponytail that rested charmingly on her shoulders. She also created a shade of lipstick that was the exact glamorous red as the rhombus between her eyebrows, which she wore daily. She almost always wore a black haori with the Uchiha crest on the back. Underneath she put on a, red or blue , kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad black obi that matched her capris. Her blouse always closed quite low, revealing a sizeable cleavage, to the desperation of her close male relatives. She closed the look with open-toed, strappy black sandals with high heels, red nail polish on both her fingernails and toenails, and her copy the Uchiha crested necklace she had gifted her brothers years ago.

Her confidence in herself and high status pushed a lot of the girls that admired her to adopt parts of her style, even if no one was a daring as her. She looked every bit like the femme fatale she knew she was. Not many men could keep themselves from taking a double look at her, and she had quite the long list of admirers, be it Uchiha clansmen, non-uchiha shinobi or nobles. The best example was her brother’s best friend, Hyuga Kitai, who could never keep his eyes of her whenever they met. Izuna often complained that his friend only visited him so often to satisfy his obvious crush. But it was only an innocent harmless flirt, because both of them knew that it was impossible. He had a duty to his clan and she had no interest in getting married. Other suitors who were less polite, especially the ones that come when you always hangout at the most popular bar of the compound, quickly came to understand that the most beautiful kunoichi in the world was also the strongest one for a reason, when she broke a couple of their bones and refused them treatment in her hospital.

The funniest thing was when they were in skirmishes against the Senju, or the Wind nomad shinobi, and they looked for a second too long at her, only to get stabbed or burned by a member of her clan. On their first battle after she changed her look, Hashirama had gawked so much, that the overprotective Madara almost burst a vein in his head trying to kill him. Izumi couldn’t help but throwing a smug look at Uzumaki Mito. Word had gone out that the surviving Uzumaki were trying to force a wedding between her and Hashirama to stabilize their new position in the Land of Fire. The girl herself had become an outstanding kunoichi, and a pain in the ass for Izumi, who had found herself facing her all the time when she rather be doing her job as a doctor.

After their confrontation in the capital, something in the eyes of the Uzumaki had changed. She clearly didn’t harbor the same strong hate she had for Izumi anymore. It was like she was trying to compete with her. Izumi knew it because it was the same look that “Three” used to give her all those years back. A look that had always brushed her in the wrong way. So you could safely assume that she didn’t like Mito that much, and that even petty stuff, like tempting the girl’s soon to be fiancé under her eyes every chance she got, were not beneath her. If anything , the rest of her clan and she enjoyed the scandalized looks the conservative Senju threw at them, especially that the Uchiha no longer shied from showing a bit of skin.

Izumi knew that she was to blame for her brother’s promiscuity, along with the slightly looser morals of the young Uchiha. As a modern woman, she had a lot of liberal ideas and, coupled with the Uchiha’s passionate and wild personalities, she was bound to have an influence. Compared to the other clans, the Uchiha had grown a reputation for being a lot more open to new things. It started with small things like wearing slightly revealing clothing or allowing even women to smoke in public and went to bigger stuff like pre-marital relationships, and one night stands. Their once small reunions held in their house, to talk about peace and change around juice and cookies, had now turned into nights at the bar co-owned by her and Izuna. They didn’t run it personally because of their busy schedules, but they were there almost every night they were at the compound. Sometimes, they even bartended themselves. This of course contributed to the popularity of their concept, and the place was always crowded. It even caused the opening of two other competing bars in the compound, and the Uchiha were now known for their intriguing nightlife.

Of course the more conservative voices complained a lot, but the new generation was free, uninhibited, and frankly didn’t care. A lot of them had started moving into the studios in the new singles district, and basically everyday they walked a fine line between tradition and libertarian values. Madara had helped put in place a system where the clan head and the elders’ interference in the personal lives of the clan members was greatly reduced, and the Uchiha took advantage of it. So cases of single people like Izuna and Izumi ,or couples like Madara and Yuki were becoming more common. The general rule was to let every person do what made them happy. Some also chose more traditional settings, like Hikaku, who had had an arranged marriage when he was eighteen, and was now expecting baby number three. He and his wife were really happy that their child will have Madara’s to play with.

Preparing a wedding took a lot of hard work. They had decided to hold the ceremony mid-February, when Yuki was still not showing too much. It was barely enough time to get everything ready, make sure that the weather wasn’t too bad for their guest from outside the clan to come and to leave Madara enough time to enjoy with his wife before he had to pick up the weapons again. Everyone in the clan was busy, because even if Madara wanted a private ceremony, he couldn’t exactly order people not to celebrate with him. Izumi as his only female relative and Yuki’s best friend had a lot to do. She had to prepare outfits for every member of her family, help Yuki with the food, decorations and venues. She also had to make sure that there were enough guest houses ready for their guests with attendants to help them, and that every single member of the clan, was seated, well fed and entertained during the whole day.

For someone who loved to have absolute control over everything, planning the wedding of a heir and his every-day-growing-bigger bride was too much to ask, and she was on her nerves. The vice-president of the hospital and her second in command, Horuto, had officially relieved her of all her duties there, Anko had taken over her share of the teaching program at the hospitals school and Izuna split his time between his duties as Madara’s advisor and helping her, but it was still nerve wracking. There was no way in hell that she would plan a wedding for herself in the future. She would be done with all this after Izuna’s third failed marriage.

But it was still worth it when the soon to be married couple thanked her and gave her happy and fulfilled smiles. Yuki didn’t fail to sarcastically thank her for putting in a good word for her, and both of them laughed at the memory of the day they became friends, while a confused Madara wondered what they were talking about.

Everything was going just fine, until they received news that the daimyo of the Land of Iron was finally out of his palace. This was important because they had been waiting for this opportunity for a while now. The Land of Iron was samurai territory, and the leader of their faction shared the authority with the daimyo. However it was a land covered in snow about half the time, and most of its revenue came from the samurai, while the daimyo just lazily took a share. The samurai wanted to get rid of him, but they were bound by a code, at least officially, and if they murdered him in the open their image would take a huge blow. Some of them were Madara’s friends from their meeting at the capital, and after years of making sure that he was trust worthy, they finally asked him to do it in secret. The Uchiha were especially good at silent assassination, and were more than willing with the incentive of a lot of money, and influential allies in the future.

The problem was that the bastard lived in a closed fortress that was impossible to infiltrate, they had to wait for him to come out, which he rarely did because he wasn’t stupid enough not to know that there was a target on his back. They had left a really good team behind them to monitor the situation and wait for the proper moment, but they hadn’t expected a slight change in the situation. The daimyo was indeed out for a visit to the Land of Hot Water, but he had made sure to hire the strongest shinobi he could to ensure his protection. Which, in this case, meant Senju freaking Hashirama and his squad. The Uchiha squad knew that they were no match and thus sent for Madara and his team. It was about a week before the wedding, so they decided that they had the time to travel there, intercept them and finish the job before coming back in time to get Madara married and inform his samurai friends that the job was done.

For the most part, they were right. Even if Hashirama was the strongest shinobi alive, by the admittance of Madara himself, and if Tobirama was not that far behind him, both of them could be stalled by Madara and Izuna working together. It came down to Touka and Mito, who had replaced Itama in their team, versus Hikaku and Izumi. Touka and Mito were a good team, and both very strong kunoichi that could take dozens of men twice their size. Mito especially had grown from a foolish hot headed young woman, to a strong, poised and deadly kunoichi. Tragedy does that to a person. But they weren’t Hikaku and Izumi strong. Both of them were powerhouses probably as strong as Izuna, and there team work was flawless. They covered both short distance with Izumi’s taijutsu and long distance with Hikaku’s ninjutsu. Izumi’s brutal strength combined with his deadly genjutsu’s left no way for anyone to escape. And finally since both of them were proficient in the manipulation and control of chakra, with a little help from Izumi’s chakra storing seal, they were virtually indestructible as a team. And they had the most important advantage of them all: Their enemies didn’t know the true measure of their strength.

Izumi had long since noticed that rivals in this world seemed to always evolve with each other. Whenever Izuna or Madara came up with a new jutsu, Hashirama and Tobirma would come up with one that counters it by their next meeting. And her brothers did the same. It was a sort of vicious cycle that kept them always growing in strength, to equal each other. So she theorized that the only way to have a decisive advantage was to break away from that circle. She shared her thought with Hikaku, who was by far the wisest member of their team after her when it came to strategies, and they came up with a plan. The next time their rivals came up with something new, they would focus on dodging it, but not countering it. Of course, they secretly came up with jutsus that could counter them, but they never showed them on the battlefield. The cycle repeated itself three times, before what she had been waiting for happened. Touka and Mito stopped evolving. They thought that they were the strongest, and since Hikaku and Izumi didn’t mind coming back with a few more wounds than necessary, everybody believed it too. Only their team, Tajima and the elders were made privy to what was really going on.

And sure enough, it came in handy. They didn’t even have to show all their strength. A simple technique was enough. The Senju squad wasn’t sloppy in the slightest, but they were blindsided. There was no need try and sneak in on them because they knew that Tobirama probably knew the exact moment they left their compound with his sensory skills. They made the attack look like everything was still the same, but at the last moment, Hikaku and Izumi switched places using a Raiton technique they had co-developed, and Izumi knocked out Touka, while Hikaku paralyzed Mito. Before anyone could react, Izumi found the daimyo and lodged a small senbon in his neck, took it out, and picked up a heavy looking ancient sword that was with him. It happened so fast that he probably didn’t noticed that she had injected him with a poison, and would probably think it was a mosquito bite if he noticed the small wound later.

The daimyo wasn’t meant to die that quickly. Her senbon was coated with a slow acting poison of her conception that will take three months to take his life. The sword she had with her was an antique, worth millions on the black market. It was one of the symbols of the monarchy in this country, like those ridiculous hats, and the daimyo couldn’t lose it. So they had fashioned their assassination plan based on it. First, Madara had someone put an anonymous, but generous offer for it on the black market. Then he let the word circulate about the Uchiha being interested in the job, so that everybody will suspect that it was the reason for this attack. After that, they waited until many attempts had been made to steal it so that theirs wouldn’t stand out, and then attacked.

The last part of the plan also went off without a hitch. Madara feigned inattention while Izumi stepped dangerously close to Hashirama, and the greatest shinobi alive naturally fell for it and sent one of his branches to capture her. She barely dodged but “accidentaly” let the sword fall. A “vanquished” Madara then ordered the retreat after a few Katons, and they disappeared. They silently made their way back to the inn were they had been staying before, and once in their room they all burst out laughing at how easy it was to trick the over confident bastards. 

What they hadn’t accounted for was the bad weather of the Land of Iron, especially in this time of the year. The inn owner had tried to warn them about the storm, but the wedding was in two days and they would barely make it in time. They were all shinobi and even without their mantels, they could use chakra to keep themselves warm, and Izumi had spent weeks planning this wedding, she wasn’t going to let anyone disturbed her perfect day. Madara had other concerns, like his bride worrying too much and hurting their unborn baby, but the point still stood. Hikaku was always on board, and Izuna was convinced after they pointed out that many girls from outside the clan would be coming to the party. The poor guy couldn’t go to the other villages or towns all winter, and was in desperate need for a change of scenery. And so they all set off anyway.

The snow storm kept getting stronger and they were all relieved when they found the cave Madara had talked about. There was still a bit of stretch from here to the compound, but once the sky cleared, they would summon Takai and Kyujusho and get there in the morning of the wedding. They could rest now and after. They started a small fire and took turns napping and standing guard. Four hours later, the storm was still going strong, but the inn manager had said that it would clear by the evening. Izumi and Madara were on their shift going through the details of the ceremony one more time to sooth his nerves, when he stiffened. Madara wasn’t as good a sensor as Izuna, which meant that whatever he had felt, would be here in a matter of seconds, so she woke up Izuna and Hikaku, who quickly got out their kunai. Izuna apparently got something, because he hissed: “ You’ve got to be kidding me! What are you doing here mister I‘ve-got-only-one-expression-because-the-lab-that-created-me-run-out-of-emotions?”

The rest of the Uchiha didn’t even need to look to know that Senju Tobirama was standing at the entrance of the cave. With him was the rest of his team, covered in snow and with grim expressions, except for Hashirama who looked like Santa had just delivered his present. He gave them a large grin and a wave, and Madara could already feel the headache coming. Before he could say anything Tobirama answered: “Does your ass ever get jealous of the amount of shit that can come out of your mouth?”

_I’ve got to admit, point Tobirama on this one, being barely out of the hands of Morpheus clearly affects your game Izuna,_ thought Izumi with a smile hidden in the collar of her red and black mantel. She couldn’t really say it out loud or Izuna would murder her in her sleep. Hashirama choose this moment to interject: “ Okay, okay , settle down. The two of you just had a good exchange a few hours ago. Why don’t you stop here and keep the good stuff for another day? After all, we will be stuck together for at least a few hours. Let’s just try to be civil.”

Madara gave a snort: “Like hell we are! We were here first, so you need to go and find yourself some other place, if you don’t want a fight on your hands.”. A heavy cloud of sadness slammed on Hashirama and he fell to the ground hugging his knees: “You’re so mean. We were almost freezing out there, and only found this cave because Tobirama spotted your chakra. I was the one who convinced them that you were a hospitable and charitable man, and now they are going to think that I’m a liar. I am sorry if we offended you, clearly old friendships mean nothing to you. We will be on our way.”

Izumi could barely stop herself from laughing out loud at the performance. This guy clearly knew how to mix the right amount of flattery and self-depreciation in his speech to manipulate Madara. It was something that took her years to master, and only she, Yuki and Izuna knew how to do it. Apparently, only a brief summer friendship was enough for him. It was good, because it would avoid a conflict that nobody else wanted anyway. Izumi secretly gave him thumbs up for his ingenuity. And Madara was clearly showing signs of being uncomfortable with the flattery, and wanting to let it go. Mito, however seemed to disagree with her opinion on Hashirama’s behavior, because she haughtily said: “ Cousin, would you stop acting so childishly and conduct yourself as the proper heir of the Clan? If he doesn’t want to listen to reason, then let’s just fight him for it. We will see who can win.”

The light mood instantly went away and everybody was tense. Izumi noticed the brief irritated look on Hashirama’s face, before it disappeared into another sheepish smile. Touka rolled her eyes from behind the red head, and Tobirama was clearly displeased. Izumi knew that it was because he shared a character trait with Izuna: Only they were allowed to scold or make fun of their elder siblings, anyone else better give them the respect they deserved or there will be hell to pay later. But he said nothing. They all just ignored her. Just like the Uchiha did. _So our fiancée to be clearly isn’t very liked by the fiancé, his brother and his friend. Interesting._ Izumi was weirdly jubilant about this. Hashirama rubbed the back of his neck nervously with a smile and said: “ Of course not. I’m exhausted and so are all of you. Let’s just stay in the Uchiha’s hospitality for a while.”. His words clearly left no place for argument and the ball was back in the Uchiha’s court.

They all stood tensely, kunai in hand ready for a fight. Madara clearly didn’t like the red head’s tone and a lot of his good will was gone, so Izumi decided to push a little. She relaxed her stance, put the kunai back in her pouch and turned away to go next to the fire in the back of the cave where it was larger. She gathered all of her teammates stuff and bags on one side of the fire and sat down back to the wall while gesturing smilingly: “ Here take the other side. The storm won’t stop until the evening so we have a long time ahead of us, let’s try to make it nice.”. Madara ,who was looking at her from the corner of his eyes, finally straightened too, and went to her side after throwing the others a glare, followed by Izuna and Hikaku. Hashirama beamed at her and got up to join them around the fire. His teammates hesitated at first but came anyway after exchanging a few looks.

They all sat in silence. The situation was weird to say the least. Any other Senju or Uchiha would have been at each other’s throat by this point. But their group shared a bond that prevented them from doing so, even if everyone was tense. So they just sat there, around a fire, in silence, waiting for someone to break the ice. Oddly enough, it was Izuna. He pushed himself a bit away from the group and laid down eyes closed after muttering something about it not being his turn anyway. Such a display made Madara smile fondly at him. It meant that he trusted his brother’s judgment; and trusted his siblings to keep him safe. He wasn’t profoundly asleep anyway, and would wake at the slightest disturbance. Hikaku joined him after a while, followed by Touka when the Senju came up with their own shift schedule. Hashirama and Tobirama went first and for the longest period, clearly trying to be gentlemanly which earned them an amused glare from Touka. Mito didn’t try to go to sleep and just retreated to the back a bit, keeping an eye on the Uchiha group. Izumi smiled inwardly. Anyone on their group could easily slaughter her, being so cautious served to nothing.

Finally, Madara relaxed enough to start looking for the scrolls he had left behind when he first jumped. They had his schedule for tomorrow, which he already knew by heart but liked to check whenever he could. He found them in the pile that separated him from Hashirama and started rolling everything back up and storing them away. Clearly, his actions brought the curiosity of his former friend because he obviously kept craning his neck trying to take a look at their content, to Tobirama’s silent despair. Izumi was amused by the slight pout he gave when the third scroll was finally gone in Madara’s bag, and the clearly smug look on Madara’s face after the fact. Like a kid who had a secret, that he wouldn’t tell his friend about. It struck Izumi that the Senju maybe didn’t know about the wedding since only their closest allies were invited. She had sent word of it to the daimyo’s wife, and the court’s envoy should be in the compound by tomorrow morning, but she doubted the daimyo had let the Senju know. The wedding of a heir was one of the days were a clan was the most vulnerable, even if Izumi and Izuna had personally gone over the security measure to ensure that nothing was left to chance. And even then, all the shinobi knew to come to the celebration armed and ready under their haoris and hakamas. Still she felt kind of sad they weren’t able to make peace happen fast enough for the two friends to be able to attend each other’s weddings. And she worried a lot about the fate of her nephew or niece.

Children were no longer sent to fight by an agreement of all clans after the Kotaro incident. The Senju had beaten them to the punch, because not a week after it, they sent messages to all their allied clans asking them to stop sending children to battle. They even contacted the Uchiha indirectly through the Nara clan. Everybody had been pretty much on board except for idiots like the Hagoromo and the Shimura, and even if it wasn’t perfect, rules were established. Children would no longer be sent to the front-lines. The most they could do was to assist the medic-nins in transporting the wounded or ran messages. Every clan had an age limit they set but most kept it at around twelve. Given that they were forbidden from engaging in combat, they weren’t classified as threats and thus killing them became forbidden. When the Hagoromo killed a Sarutobi child, all clans collectively decided to banish them, and cut off their resources. It meant no food because of the Senju, no clothes or weapon because of the Uchiha, no medicine because of the Nara and their group, and so on. The restrictions had lasted a full year, and only stopped because they too had children and they were starving. The lesson had been taught. But it also meant that they now had a timer on their backs. Peace needs to happen somewhere in the next twelve years, because Madara’s kid was in no way going to be ripped from them by some bloody war. 

Izumi itched to know. Do they or don’t they know about the wedding? Should she be expecting an attack on the day she had carefully planned every minute of? There would be hell to pay if that happened. She kept sending twitchy looks Hashirama’s way. If anyone was going to give her answers, it would be him, but how to get him to talk with the silent guardian dog by his side? Hashirama must have understood her meaning, because he threw a knowing look in Madara’s direction with a smirk, and said: “ So, you were studying up on wedding stuff , huh? I could have lent you some interesting material if I had my secret storage scroll on me. What a shame!” Izumi thanked god for the Uchiha’s high collars because she could hide her laugh in them, while clasping both hands on Madara’s face to keep his indignant shouts from waking up the sleeping shinobi. She answered for him: “Trust me, he doesn’t need help in that department, he has already proven that. And if push comes to shove, Izuna could give him a crash course that would make a red district worker blush.” Hashirama gave hearty laugh saying: “Is that so? I guess every family has a brother like me, who supports the….how to say this delicately…. The less experienced!”. Now it was Tobirama’s turn to be indignant at the implication.

Izumi shot back: “Impossible! With how he swears, who would believe that Tobirama-san isn’t a regular at the Senju equivalent of a whore house. You’re really trying to tell me that he is innocent? Sometimes even I can’t get the images he’s depicting quite right, and I live with Izuna. I have seen and heard things. Many things.”. That particular discussion went on for a while. Tobirama and Madara who had never thought they could be on the same side , found themselves victimized by their shameless siblings. Sometimes they too put in a good word or two, between chokes on dry air. The atmosphere was really light and everybody was having a nice enough time, giving the strange circumstances, when Mito decided to butt in: “I’ve heard that the Uchiha heirs usually get married in the summer. What made you decide on a winter wedding, Madara-sama?”.

Now that was just rude, wasn’t it? Izumi thought so too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Thanks again for reading. I hope you’re enjoying the story so far. So, this chapter (and the whole story in general) is in need of some serious editing. I tried to catch as many mistakes as I could, but my eyes don’t seem to see them anymore for tonight. I actually had to spend hours rewriting this, because the first draft was going in an entirely different direction. But this version fits better with the ending I’m working on. I’ll try to fix it all later. In other news, our Izumi is a bit jealous, and she doesn’t even know it yet! I kind of try to make Mito an annoying character because, even if she had like one line in the whole anime, she was kind of a bitch to Kurama. And that to me is unforgivable. But don’t worry, I plan on giving her a chance to redeem herself later, and show her side of things. Thanks for reading again 


	14. The Curse of Hatred

The atmosphere in the cave was back to awkward.

Truth be told, Yuki’s pregnancy wasn’t really a secret. The whole clan knew about it, the Hyuga did too, and basically anyone invited to the wedding would be able to feel the baby’s chakra. About a month ago, he started emitting his own chakra, and since his slowly forming pathways were independent from Yuki’s, she couldn’t suppress them. It was one of the reasons why women pregnant with shinobi’s children were forbidden from stepping outside their compounds. Madara’s baby also emitted such a strong chakra, twice what a fetus in his state of development should, that nobody was able to miss the pregnant lady whenever she stepped in the room. Pregnancies weren’t Izumi’s area of expertise, so the follow up was done by one of her students who had also had an apprenticeship with a midwife. The doctor strongly suspected twins, but since both the parents were powerhouses on their own, and giving the lack of modern equipment, they wouldn’t be able to tell until the delivery day.

They couldn’t just volunteer this information to people who were officially their enemies, even if they probably had their doubts. Madara was taking all the precautions he could to ensure the safety of his child, and that involved keeping the Senju as far away from him as possible. Especially when their group also had an Uzumaki with a grudge against the Uchiha. He and Izumi exchanged a look, before he said evenly: “That’s just a dumb tradition. We wanted a winter wedding, so that everyone could celebrate with us. Can’t exactly pull people out of their missions in the summer for a party.”

The Senju didn’t seem convinced by his answer, but Hashirama choose to put an end to it : “That’s great! Look at you, Uchiha Madara, planning a wedding! Who would have thought? Well, I guess that I should congratulate you on the behalf of the Senju clan. I wish you all the love and happiness in the world. Hopefully for a very long time ”. Before Madara could say anything, a slide snicker came from Mito as she bowed her head and said: “God help us all if that love came to be cut short.”

It was Izumi’s turn to be angry now: “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”. Mito raised her head and looked her rival dead in the eye: “ It means that if someone as powerful as your brother came to experience your damned Curse of Hatred, nobody will be able to foretell what will become of our world. Even the Uchiha should be worried, instead of rejoicing.”. Madara’s hand was firmly keeping her in place, otherwise she would already be tearing the bitch’s face. She looked at the rest of the Senju brothers, angry and confused, looking for answers she didn’t feel like getting from the redhead: “What the hell is she talking about? What Curse of Hatred?”

Hashirama only frowned, looking for a way to explain without hurting anyone’s feelings. Tobirama was less thoughtful: “ It’s a theory the clans have come up with regarding your Sharingan. We all know that Uchiha are people greatly devoted to love and friendship, even if you tend to conceal your more affectionate traits. However, when the object of their affection is lost, an Uchiha's love can instantaneously turn into hatred, leaving them more inclined to do anything and everything in their power to achieve their goals and show their own superiority, regardless of the consequences and repercussions of their actions. The despair of these experiences causes a manifestation of a unique chakra within an Uchiha's brain, impacting the optic nerves and creating the Sharingan. The more advanced the form gets, the more it requires extremely painful experiences, which causes the user to delve into darkness until it utterly consumes them ”

Izumi’s breath was caught in her throat, because of how angry she was getting by the second. Bullshit! How dare he slander them like this? What can he even know about the Sharingan? What does he even know about the Uchiha? If such a rumor kept going on , they would be in some deep trouble. Public image was an important factor in politics, and if people started believing that the Uchiha were a bunch of twisted lunatics, how will they ever be able to negotiate on an equal footing with the others. Izumi was aware of her clansmen over the top passionate personalities, but if you phrase it like that, and give the whole thing a name as horrible as “The Curse of Hatred”, you clearly are trying to push people into mistrusting them, and even fearing them, when all they had done was experience some very human emotions. Izumi could smell the stink of a dirty political machination taking place. Looking around, everybody seemed to share his opinion. Mito had a smug look, Hashirama was looking everywhere but at them, and even Madara seemed to only glare at the Senju, with no intention to refute them. She put her hand on her hand on his to get his attention and asked: “Did you know that such rumors were circulating about us?”. He didn’t have to answer. His expression said it all. Fuck it! She needed a smoke.

Reaching out to her bag from the pile, she took out a small pipe and Tabaco. She really needed to figure out a way to make cigarettes. This was getting ridiculous, she felt like a James Bond villain. While taking her first puff, she asked Tobirama: “When you said “clans”, I assume you meant the Senju clan, right? You come up with this crap, and then you start telling it to other people as facts. I don’t suppose that you have any kind of proof to back up what you are saying?”. She was clearly shooting at the messenger, but his self-sufficient, and matter of fact tone was a good enough excuse to do so. Tobirama was on the defensive. He knew that an argument was about to happen. And he was right. Taking a deep breath, he answered in a tone that he probably meant as understanding, but just came out as condescending: “ It may be hard for you to admit, but we have seen it many times, and our theories are the only thing that explain the reality.”.

Izumi took another puff: “ Interesting.”

They all sat in an awkward silence for a couple of minutes. Finally, Izumi looked at the ceiling and said in a light and cheery tone: “ You know, I have a theory too. Would you like to hear it?”. The frown on the albino’s face deepened, but he didn’t answer. She continued anyway: “ I think that the Senju’s incredible life force and vitality come from sucking out other peoples life force. I believe that you have a dungeon somewhere in your compound, where you keep a lot of innocents, and every time you need something, you just go down there pick up someone, and suck him dry to keep going.”.

Hashirama and Madara gave have the same incredulous look. She avoided looking at Mito , because that would push her to commit murder, and instead focused her gaze on Tobirama, who was about to burst. She cut him off before he could start raging: “Now, of course, everybody in here knows that I’m just bullshitting. My theory has as much value as your own. It comes from the same hateful place, and tells a narrative that suits one of the involved parties, while greatly damaging the image of the other. And both of us have the same amount of scientific proof to back it up. Which is none. And yet, imagine this with me. Tomorrow, when the wedding is over, I will take an hour or two of my valuable time to come up with a better story than the one I just threw in after two minutes of thinking. Give it as many details as I can to make it believable, maybe throw in a couple of rituals, or some blood sucking. I’m a brilliant person, I’m sure I can come up with something good. And then, I will start telling it, just like you do with so much confidence. Maybe even use my identity as one of this word’s top medical practitioners to spread the rumor about some disturbing stuff I found while doing an autopsy. Not many will believe it at first, but you have enemies other than us. They will pick up my story, add their own twist to it, and then spread it some more. Before long, ignorant, illiterate villagers start hearing about it, and then believing it. After all, you do have inexplicable healing abilities, and the resources to keep such a thing going on. How long do you think it would take before people start fearing your clan? Or start questioning the origin of your brother’s kekkei genkai? It’s kind of freaky that he is the only one to be able to awaken a power that was supposed to be a legend, don’t you think? And it just happened to be a couple of years after the Uchiha clan birthed a genius that was surpassing all the Senju his age. Such a lucky coincidence.”

Izumi’s smug look was only rivaled by Madara’s genial smirk. The Senju were at a loss of words from her threats. The other three, “sleeping”, shinobi had stopped pretending, and joined them around the fire. Izumi gave the other group a harsh look: “You’re not the only one to notice that the Uchiha are passionate people, to say the least. We are aware of that fact. But don’t try using that against us. You can’t take a couple examples and make a general rule about the whole clan. I’m sure that if anyone bothers to look, we will find people just as crazy and hateful in your clan’s history too. Hatred, anger and despair don’t pick or spare you because of your last name. They aren’t something you can inherit at birth. That’s the nurture part in “nature VS nurture”, motherfucker. If you don’t believe me, take a look at your own father. You’re a science guy from what I hear. Try telling me objectively that he isn’t just as batshit crazy as mine.”

The Tabaco in her pipe was almost gone. Everyone was just gazing at the fire pensively. In a way Izumi was glad Mito had brought this up. She had been an advocate for peace with the Senju since day one. She had blindly encouraged her brother, and put her trust in Hashirama. She wasn’t dumb, she knew that a lot of angry feelings and mistrust were looming over the whole ordeal, but she had had hope. Still did. But not if it would put her clansmen in harm’s way. They were loving and hardworking people, and didn’t deserve such a disgusting propaganda going on against them. As a former spy who had staged more than enough political incidents, this was her game. She knew of the effects rumors had in politics. How many good politicians and political agendas were ruined because of a tiny rumor about morality? How many “democratic” elections were won by carefully crafted lies? How many countries were destroyed because of people’s suspicions? Either this gets nipped in the bud, or she will personally make sure that everybody was on even ground when negotiations start. She had meant every word she had said before.

The elephant in the room couldn’t be ignored anymore, so Izumi started: “Let’s talk openly for a minute. I believe that all the people present in this cave know that Madara and Hashirama are working towards peace and a better world in general. Everybody here has a job, and they take it seriously. At least the Uchiha do. We have worked tirelessly for years to make change happen. And even if I don’t know what exactly you have accomplished on your side, I have been willing to give you the benefit of the doubt so far. Peace will involve a lot of diplomacy and a lot of politics in the future, and don’t you dare think that I will let you screw us over later, or come up with ways like this to destroy our public image and push us out of the sphere of influence. If peace is ever going to happen, it will be on equal terms with as much honesty and democracy as possible. Any funny business and I will show all of you what a true curse of hatred looks like when I burn your whole compound to the ground, with you in it. I hope you get that two can play at this game of slandering the other, and that from now on I will always be one step ahead of you. You don’t want to play this kind of game with me.”

She had smoked all her Tabaco, so she took out the small box for a refill, and got up to smoke near the entrance of the cave were she didn’t disturb anyone. But not before throwing Hashirama a harsh look and saying: “And you mister peace-and-friendship, you can claim your good will all you want, but it serves to nothing if you don’t accompany it with some firm actions. If you can’t even defend your friend from being slandered to his face by your hateful brother and cousin, how the hell do you think yourself capable of uniting the Uchiha and the Senju?” And with that she stormed with the satisfied look of a mother who had just scolded her kids after they misbehaved. In a way she felt just like that. She was now in her forties, mentally, and she felt responsible for all these kids and their dreams. She won’t let them go down a wrong path if she could help it.

But the truth was that she didn’t know if she was helping. As she stood facing the falling snow, she kept thinking about all she had done since coming to this world. Leadership roles were never her strong suit. She was brilliant and could follow a line of thought if she had to. Most of the time in her previous career she only needed a target’s name and a goal. Command trusted her devious mind to come up with the rest. But she had no experience dealing with the bigger picture. She didn’t have the kind of visionary mind that could see the world for what it was and decided on how to remodel it to fit her vision. Most of what she did these few years, was like now, just reacting to events created by others. She let her own position, emotion and views guide her. So, for all she knew, she could be hurting instead of helping. She could be acting selfishly when she thought that she was just protecting herself and loved ones. The philosophical wormhole she had thrown herself into probably had no correct answer, and yet she kept agonizing over it.

Madara came in to join her after a while. They both had their backs to the others, and he silently took her pipe and took a big huff. She jokingly said: “ Your future bride might kick me out of your house if she thinks that I’m teaching you bad stuff.” He gave a laugh at that and gave her back her pipe. As they watched the snow fall, he said in a hushed voice so that the others couldn’t hear them: “ You made some good points earlier. Always knew that my baby sister can be one hell of a shrew when she feels like.” She didn’t answer, and only raised an eyebrow, urging him to continue. “But it also feels nice to know that you’re there to guard my back, you know. Even when I think that I’m being crazy, the fact that you’re here helps. So if you say that you don’t believe in the curse of hatred, I don’t either. What I want to know is: What makes you think that their word can still be trusted? Even if you just gave them one hell of a scolding, you clearly still haven’t closed the door on an alliance with them. If anything, this is the first time someone talked about it so openly.”. She just stared at the snow once again: “I already told you once, you can never know for sure what’s in someone’s mind. When the time comes, you will just choose to believe in them, or not. Trust your gut. It has showed on multiple occasions that it knows what it’s doing.”

The snowstorm was starting to die down. The two hours that followed Izumi’s outburst were heavy on everyone. Nobody could go back to napping. They all just sat around the fire, as far away from each other as possible, lost in thought. When it became safe enough for them to travel, each group silently picked up their stuff and went to the entrance of the cave. The Senju watched as the twins summoned Takai and Kyujusho and mounted them in pairs. Izuna and Hikaku knew to fly away first, because Hashirama clearly had something to say to the other two. The rest of his group was waiting for him a few feet away, to give them privacy. He came closer to Takai, with a determined look on his face and said: “I will make this right, I promise. I didn’t see things in the way you put them before, but now I do. I won’t let some baseless rumor stand in the way of our dream. Words don’t hold much value, I know that. So I will prove our commitment to peace with actions.”

Izumi raised an eyebrow and gave him the tiniest smile: “I’ll be waiting to see it then. Oh, and also…”. Hashirama signature mocking smile came: “ I know. You were never here, we saw nothing. This past few hours never happened, you will deny it tooth and nail.” That made her laugh. And then Takai took off and sped up to meet with Kyujusho. Once their squad was complete again, Izuna asked: “So how did it go? Think you can trust them?”. Izumi gave Madara a look. Only he knew enough to answer that question. From behind her came his determined statement: “ I don’t know, it’s too early to tell. Right now all we can do is keep working towards our own goals. And when the time comes, we will make sure that we are strong enough to get the best outcome possible for ourselves. That’s all we have control of.”. His answer seemed to be good enough for the rest of the group.

They arrived around four in the morning and managed to sneak in a couple hours of sleep before they had to get up and get ready.

Madara had slept in the room he shared with Izuna one last time. All his stuff was already moved to his new house. Their elderly next door neighbor had agreed to sell them his house for a hefty sum and an apartment in the new district that was closer to the shops and the compound’s garden. They had knocked down the wall, and both houses were now separated by only a large garden. The couple would still have their privacy, and space for their expending family, but Madara’s siblings would still be close enough. Izumi knew that they had a really codependent relationship, but she didn’t really care. 

After waking the brothers and Tajima up, she bathed herself quickly and put on her outfit for the day. She had picked an elegant high-collar deep red silk kimono, with black silk-threaded hexagrams embroidered in a line that covered the entire eri. The same embroidery was on the cuff of her sleeves , and on the hem of the kimono. She chose a one color fabric, with no other patterns so as not to upstage the bride. She loved a unique look, and red was her color, but this wasn’t her day. To keep up with her black and red theme, she choose a black obi that was held in place with a red obijime and the standard Uchiha crest obidome. Instead of the traditional tabi and zori, she chose to wear open toed black leather sandals with a heel. She felt more comfortable that way, and she would need all the comfort she could get with the hectic day she had coming. Her hair was all held in a side braid bun, except for two lose strands that charmingly framed her face. On her ears hang big black drop dangle earrings, and she wore no make-up other than her signature red lipstick.

When she stepped in the living room, the men were already dressed in the black haoris and Hakamas she had prepared for them. Once she laid eyes on the groom, who was stuffing his face with rice, she screamed: “Hell, no! Ni-san you promised me.” She dashed into Izuna’s room and found the special white silk hair tie she had prepared for him. Going back into the living room, she kneeled behind a disappointed Madara. He knew not to argue with her so early in the morning and just let her set his hair long hair in a high ponytail. At least he had combed it before.

Once it was settled, she sat down at the table too, and started eating while reminding everybody of their roles for the day: “So you all know what to do and when exactly you should be doing it right? Father, you are to make sure that the elders are ready, as well as the court envoy who is staying in guest-house n°1. Meet up with us at the shrine at 9:45 sharp. The other clan heads won’t get here for the reception until noon, but after that it’s your job to entertain them most of the time. Izuna, for now you’re on bride escort duty. Head to her house as soon as you are done, and help around if can. And I don’t care if she’s not ready, you are to drag her to the shrine by 10:00. Madara, you go find the priest, and help him make sure that the shrine is ready. Everything you need has already been prepared beforehand, but the old crone refused to set up before this very morning.”

Tajima just nodded, amused: “ Just relax, we have been over this more than ten times. I have seen you sew back hearts of shinobi before, and you weren’t as stressed as you are now. There’s nothing left to do anyway.” Madara and Izuna looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Why the hell would he say such a thing in front of her? She started: “ Nothing left to do? NOTHING LEFT TO DO? I have to run to the kitchen tent to make sure that they have everything they need so that they can prepare the meals in time. I have to make a complete lap of the compound to make sure that the horrible weather hasn’t knocked over any of the decorations, flowers and tents we set up, or their content. I have to go help set up the three musician groups we hired for the occasion. I have to make sure that the waiters and attending staff are all in position. And that’s all before I have to rush to the shrine to watch my brother get married. And after that I will be running around all over the place fighting small fires everywhere, while politely greeting our guest and entertaining them. And you say that there’s nothing left to do?”

A very scared Tajima gave her a small apology, while the brothers made themselves as small as possible. After their breakfast was done, everybody was on his way. The hours went by in a blur. She didn’t have time to go check on Yuki herself, but she knew that Izuna, her parents, brothers and cousins were all there to make sure everything went smoothly. Her friend had been worried about her kimonos not fitting, and about the old scar on her cheek, but Izumi had reassured her that she was going to be the most beautiful bride the Uchiha had ever seen. By 10:00 a.m. they were all in the shrine, and they watched as a the happy couple drunk their wine and made their vows to each other. The ritual had lasted a full two hours, and the streets of the compound were already buzzing with life when they were done. Music was heard everywhere. People went from tent to tent either to eat and drink, sit with their friends and family, or participate in one of the many games that were taking place. Days where almost the whole clan could get together to celebrate were incredibly rare, and so Izumi had planned the day as a big festival so that everybody could have fun.

When the couple and their families got out of the shrine, they were escorted in a very happy parade all the way to the central square where a beautiful big and closed tent was set up. This tent was meant only for the higher ranked guests. While the rest had gigantic buffets they could dig into, here there was an organized seating area, and waiters kept coming and going while serving refreshments, as they waited for the bride and groom to start the real meal. Their group went from table to table to thank the guests for coming. The clan heads and heirs of the Hyuga, Hatake, Aburame, Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka and Hyuga were all there, as well as four high ranked samourai, some of the nobles they had deep ties with and some Uchiha high ranked shinobi and kunoichi.

Once they sat, people started proposing toasts and eating merrily. Izumi pretended to be checking on the samurai and discreetly signaled them that the mission had been a success. They would get the second half of their payment later. Sitting down next to Kitai, she could finally relax a little bit. Everything that needed to be planned in advance had gone well. If anything went wrong, someone would come and get her, but for now she could sit down and enjoy the party. She smoked while flirting with a beet red Kitai for a while, and joined some of the conversations with the clan heads or the elders. The Uchiha’s pharmacological advancement over the years had intrigued the Nara, and so she had a very spirited conversation with their leader. Izuna had deceided that his next conquest was the Yamaka heiress, and she seemed to like him too. Madara was doing his job as an heir splendidly as he kept coming and going between guests, introducing them to his bride and future first lady of the clan. This was a networking occasion for everybody and they made full use of it, even if Madara didn’t really like socializing. Izumi had trained him well. Hopefully if any of the people present had heard about that stupid rumor, such a warm and happy display would make them doubt it.

At some point, everybody started leaving the tent, and just mingling with the rest of the clan. Some of the clan heads were dragged into the gambling tent they had set up and lost quite a bit of money. The samurai got really drunk, and had to be escorted to their quarters earlier than expected. Around eight in the evening, when it was dark enough, they set off fireworks that everyone enjoyed. The party ended soon after that, and everyone tiredly went to pick up their already prepared gift bags, and went home. After Izumi made sure that the cleaning crew knew what to do the next day, and that all the guest were satisfied with the arrangements they had made for them, she finally went back home to rest.


End file.
